By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Photo credit: Tony Chang/Chang Photography
An old tennis adage informs us: What you don’t know can hurt you.
Seeing her serve shattered by Alexandra Eala in a stunning 6-2, 7-5 Miami loss today, Iga Swiatek conceded she was blindsided by the left-hander’s bold returns and flat darts down the line.
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In the aftermath of one of the greatest upsets in Miami Open history, Swiatek said she often didn’t see the kill shot coming from the world No. 140’s black-and-yellow Babolat racquet.
“Well, for sure, I didn’t know she’s going to play that flat, but besides that, well, she was really aggressive, you know, and she kept her focus,” Swiatek told the media in Miami. “And, like, I don’t know, some of these shots were pretty like out of nowhere.
“But still, you know, I could see clearly she has intentions to go forward and to push. So it worked for her today, for sure.”
World No. 1 Swiatek was No. 1 in service games held last season.
Today, the left-handed wild card shredded Swiatek’s serve.
Eala broke in eight of Swiatek’s 10 service games and pounded the Pole’s second serve winning 19 of 25 points played on the second seed’s second serve.
“I mean, her being a lefty didn’t surprise me, but for sure, like, she went all in,” Swiatek said. “She made these returns in and pretty long, and so it wasn’t easy to hit it back.
“She was pretty loosened up and just went for it. Yeah, I mean, she felt the nice rhythm and it helped her.”
Though Eala has trained at the Rafa Nadal Academy for the last seven years (she calls it her “second home”), is good friends with the king of clay and was supported today by Toni Nadal, Rafa’s uncle and original coach, sitting in her box, Eala’s game differs from her tennis her.
Though Eala is an ultra-competitive lefty, who plays Babolat and wears Nike, like her tennis hero, she plays much flatter than Nadal’s crackling topspin. Today, Eala repeatedly rushed the second seed by stepping in, taking the ball early and drving flat strikes into the corners.
Five-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek and Nadal presented Eala with her diploma on her graduation from the Rafa Nadal Academy School in Mallorca.
Today, the student Eala taught the major master Swiatek a lesson in the art of the stealth strike.
On a few second serves, Swiatek looked like a blindfolded boxer: She couldn’t see the shots coming and her serve took a pounding.
“I think she just returned well,” Swiatek said. “I wasn’t ready for the next ball.”
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