Alexandra Eala continues historic Miami run with Iga Swiatek upset

Alexandra Eala continued her history-making run at the Miami Open on Wednesday, shocking world No. 2 Iga Swiatek, 6-2, 7-5 to reach her first WTA 1000 semifinal.

"Miami, you have my ❤️," Eala wrote on the camera lens following the milestone victory.

Eala already became the first Filipino player to score a Top 10 win since the rankings began in 1975 when she stunned Australian Open champion Madison Keys earlier in the week. With "Uncle" Toni Nadal watching from the sidelines, the 19-year-old wild card scored an even more emphatic win over Swiatek to advance in one hour and 39 minutes at Hard Rock Stadium.

While Eala, who trains at the Rafael Nadal Academy, has been on the ascent, Swiatek has struggled to match the blistering pace she set this time last year, when she scored 1000-level victories in Doha and Indian Wells. Though she improved on her result in Melbourne with a semifinal finish, she failed to defend either title and responded to criticism following an incident of perceived aggression towards a ball boy at the BNP Paribas Open.

“Usually, I control such impulses,” Swiatek said of her frustrations in a lengthy Instagram post, “so half-jokingly I can say I lack experience in this and misjudged my aim in the heat of the moment.”

The former world No. 1 opened up about building anxieties triggering by a positive doping test, one for which she was ultimately found to bear No Significant Fault or Negligence, pointing to the time she missed due to a provisional suspension as preventing her from better competing for the top of the WTA rankings.

Still, Swiatek performed well in Miami, reaching the quarterfinals for the first time since 2022, when she won the title to first clinch the No. 1 ranking.

Eala, who won a big title of her own in 2022 (the junior US Open) also reached the last eight without dropping a set, becoming the tournament’s Cinderella story after beating back-to-back Grand Slam champions in No. 25 seed Jelena Ostapenko and Madison Keys, who lifted her first major trophy Down Under back in January.

Despite receiving a walkover from No. 10 seed Paula Badosa, Eala was able to hit the ground running against Swiatek, turning around an early break deficit to run away with the opening set, breaking the Pole four times to put herself halfway to earning a monumental upset. Meanwhile, Swiatek was struggling with her range, striking 19 unforced errors in the first set alone, and consulted with coach Wim Fissette before taking a bathroom break.

Eala looked poised to maintain her momentum early in the second when she took a 2-0 lead but Swiatek came to life from there, reeling off the next four games with renewed consistency.

Just when a third set appeared inevitable, Eala regained her composure to win three of the next four games herself. Breaking Swiatek as she served for the set, she moved within a game of victory as Swiatek erred wide off the forehand side.

Two more forehand misses from Swiatek helped Eala earn a pair of match points. She would only need one, forcing one last error from Swiatek to score the biggest win of her young career.