World No. 140 Alexandra Eala's Miami Open fairytale has been elevated to a completely new level after the world No. 140 upset No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek 6-2 7-5 to reach the semifinal.
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The Filipina, who made her WTA 1000 debut in Miami after being handed a main draw wildcard, clinched her third win over a Grand Slam champion in South Beach after previously also stunning Jelena Ostapenko and Madison Keys. Also, the 19-year-old is now the first player from her country to break inside the top-100 - she is already guaranteed to improve 65 spots when the WTA rankings list gets updated on Monday.
Right from the start of the match, it was clear that Eala had the game to compete against Swiatek. And after breaking the Pole four times in the first set and also pressuring the five-time Grand Slam champion into making 19 unforced errors, the Filipina put herself in a strong position to pull off a major upset.
In the second set, Swiatek had a chance to serve out for the second set at 5-4 but Eala impressively responded with back-to-back breaks to complete her two-set win and to set up a Miami semifinal against either Jessica Pegula or Emma Raducanu.
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Eala was shown a picture with Swiatek from her graduation
When the Filipina was graduating from the Rafa Nadal Academy, the Pole and Nadal were there.
After registering the biggest win of her career and being shown that picture, the 19-year-old admitted everything felt surreal to her.
"I'm in complete disbelief right now, I'm on cloud nine. It's so surreal... I'm so happy and so blessed to be able to compete with such a player on this stage. I feel like I'm the exact same person as I was in that photo. But of course, circumstances have changed," Eala said.
