Quote of the Day: Alexandra Eala explains *that* reaction to beating Iga Swiatek

Alexandra Eala's shocking upset of No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek surprised anyone watching on Wednesday—and even one of the competitors in the match: the Filipina teenager herself.

It's no secret that the 19-year-old's 6-2, 7-5 win over former Miami champion Swiatek was a head-turner: A wild card, Eala is the second such player to ever beat three Grand Slam champions in the same event, and she continued what was already a historic run for a player from the Philippines. She also served up just Swiatek's third tour-level loss ever to a player ranked outside the Top 100.

"I'm in complete disbelief right now, I'm on cloud nine," Eala said in her on-court interview, calling the moment "surreal" im more ways than one.

She had reason to dub it such: Two years ago, Eala graduated from the Rafael Nadal Academy in Mallorca, where Swiatek spoke as the commencement speaker. She posed with the former world No. 1 as she moved her tassle from one side of her graduation cap to the other, symbolically moving into her next chapter alongside her future opponent.

"I feel like I'm the exact same person as I was in that photo," Eala conitnued. "But of course, circumstances have changed! I'm so happy and so blessed to be able to compete with such a player on this stage."

Read more: Is Nadal Academy prodigy Alexandra Eala the next tennis star?

All that together led to a puzzingly muted reaction from Eala on Wednesday when Swiatek's final backhand floated past the baseline. In the immedicay of such a seismic win, a player might scream, jump for joy, or fall to the ground. But Eala did none of that. Instead, she simply stared into space, looking on the verge of tears, as her eyes grew wide with a half-shrug.

While the emotions overtook her after she shook Swiatek's hand, Eala later explained what froze her in time to begin with.

Q. When that last point was played and Iga hit that ball long, I couldn't decide whether it looked like you were about to cry or you were crying, or you were just in a state of shock?

ALEXANDRA EALA: I couldn't decide either (smiling). I think I was so in the moment, and I made it a point to be in the moment every point that it's hard to realize what just happened. It's hard to realize that you won the match.

I really tried to soak it all in, because this has never happened to me before, and that's why I was looking at the screen. You know, I really wanted to keep that moment in my mind.

Read more: Alexandra Eala’s star rises in Miami: “This is a good step towards where I want to be”

But staying in the moment, in fact, was part of what helped Eala secure the upset. She dominated Swiatek from the jump, to a tune of a 6-2, 2-0 lead, using her swinging left-handed strokes to keep the five-time major-winner on the back foot. Though she lost four straight games, she never let things get too far away from her, and denied Swiatek an opportunity to extend the match by breaking serve in the 10th game.

"[T]he celebration, you don't really think that the match is over, because you're still thinking about the next point, what to do next," Eala confessed. "Everybody gets nervous. I'm sure someone as great as Iga gets nervous from time to time. All these big players get nervous. It's a matter of how you deal with it and how to compartmentalize."

"I really, really tried to just focus on the court and just feel like nobody else was there," she added.

Whatever the result in the semifinals against either No. 4 seed Jessica Pegula or 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu, Eala has assured herself of a Top 100 debut, and rarefied air in her home country—a position she already occupied, to a degree, by winning the US Open junior title in 2022.

" I would love to think that I make a difference," she said. "That's the only thing I can do to give back to my country is to help inspire, to inspire change and positive change, to inspire people to pick up a racquet, to watch more tennis, watch more women's tennis.

"I think that tennis in the Philippines has so much potential, because even though it's not as widespread as other sports, I feel that we have a lot of hidden talent, and if we can have the support to back it up and the exposure to back it up, then I think that Philippine tennis can be a big thing."