In the early hours of Friday morning, after nearly two weeks spent slaying giants, Alexandra Eala slumped in her chair inside the vast Hard Rock Stadium, her unforgettable run in Miami finally at an end. Before she could even begin to reflect on her mixed emotions of pride and disappointment, however, she was hit by a wall of noise.
The audience, still filled with Filipino fans at 12.45am, had opted to celebrate Eala’s achievements with a thunderous standing ovation. She responded immediately, raising both fists to the air and then blowing kisses to all corners of the stadium with a smile.
It was a moment she fully deserved. During her time in Miami, Eala compiled one of the most spectacular and surprising breakout runs of this century. A 19-year-old from the Philippines ranked No 140, she had entered the Miami Open with a wild card and few expectations. In her short career, she had won only two matches on the WTA tour and her form in 2025 had been unimpressive.
Simply winning her first-round match against the No 73 Katie Volynets marked this tournament as a success for Eala, but she just kept on going. She generated attention with her victory over Jelena Ostapenko, the mercurial 2017 French Open champion, then she forced the tennis world to take notice with her straight-sets win over Madison Keys, the reigning Australian Open champion and world No 5. With all eyes on Eala, she then engineered one of the great upsets in recent times, toppling the five-time grand slam champion Iga Swiatek to reach the semi-finals.
One week ago, no Filipina woman had ever defeated a grand slam champion. Eala scuppered three in succession. She then showed that those victories were no fluke by pushing Jessica Pegula, the world No 4, to the limit in an intense, bruising three-set battle.
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