Teenage wild card Alexandra Eala turned in the most remarkable performance so far of her history-making breakout run at the Miami Open, ousting No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek 6-2, 7-5 to make the first WTA semifinal of her career. Eala overturned a 4-2 deficit in the second set.
Miami: Draws | Scores | Order of play
“I’m in complete disbelief right now, I’m on cloud nine,” a breathless Eala said in her on-court interview. Presented with a photo of her graduation from the Rafa Nadal Academy less than two years ago, with Swiatek by her side, Eala’s state of shock only grew.
“It’s so surreal,” she said. “I feel like I’m the exact same person as I was in that photo. 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 … My coach told me to run, to go for every ball, to take all the opportunities I can, because a five-time Slam champion is not going to give you the win.”
What are the key stats behind Eala’s seismic upset?
Eala, 19, is the first player from the Philippines to reach a tour-level semifinal, and is now guaranteed to become the first Filipina to be ranked inside the Top 100 of the PIF WTA Rankings next Monday. She is the third wild card to reach the last four in Miami, following Justine Henin in 2010 and Victoria Azarenka in 2018 — both of whom were former World No. 1s returning from extended breaks.
No. 140-ranked Eala, whose run this fortnight has also included wins over Jelena Ostapenko and Madison Keys, is just the second wild card to defeat three or more Grand Slam champions in a single tour-level event, following Elina Svitolina at Wimbledon 2023. Prior to Miami, she had never defeated an opponent in the Top 40, nor faced one in the Top 20; she now owns two Top 10 victories.
The result is just Swiatek’s third loss to a player ranked outside the Top 100 in a WTA main draw. Previously, she fell to Karolina Muchova (No. 106 at the time) in the first round of Prague 2019 and Ana Konjuh (No. 338 at the time) in the third round of Miami 2021.
Eala will next face either No. 4 seed Jessica Pegula or Emma Raducanu as she bids to reach her first career WTA final.
3 – Alexandra Eala is the third player to reach her first WTA semi-final at the Miami OpenMary Joe Fernandez in 1998Danielle Collins in 2018Alexandra Eala in 2025 🆕
Departure.#MiamiOpen | @MiamiOpen @WTA @WTA_insider
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) March 26, 2025
How did Eala pull it off?
The tone of the match was set in a bruising opening stretch. The first four games alone took over 25 minutes to play after all went to at least one deuce. Five of the first six games of the match were service breaks. Eala established two things from the off: firstly, that her game could go toe-to-toe with the five-time major champion; and secondly, that she could keep her head even when coming out on the wrong side of long deuce tussles and when her lead was pegged back.
When Swiatek swatted a backhand winner to break back for 3-2, she seemed to have wrested the momentum. Instead, it was Eala who responded by running off eight straight points and five consecutive games to lead 2-0 in the second set.
Until this point, Eala had enjoyed a purple patch of breathtaking winners. Her left-handed forehand was the star of the show, and garnered her three in one game to break for 3-1 in the first set. But the youngster was also able to mix the play up with her backhand and a cheeky drop shot en route to closing out the first set. Swiatek was repeatedly left flat-footed.
At 2-0 in the second set, Eala double faulted — and then Swiatek pulled off her best shot of the day, a forehand sizzler crosscourt. Teeing off on return, the 2022 champion ran off four straight games of her own to lead 4-2. But she was unable to sustain that form.
Having tallied 19 unforced errors in the first set, Swiatek contributed a further 13 in the second set. But whereas Eala’s consistency and depth had played a role in eliciting those mistakes early on, the back half of the second set saw rallies become shorter and more ragged. Swiatek also failed to serve the set out at 5-4, and collapsed in the final game of the match with a trio of wild forehand errors. On Eala’s first match point, the Filipina pummelled another deep return to force Swiatek’s backhand over the baseline.
