Alexandra Eala isn't setting any major expectations for herself after a dream Miami Open run but just hopes that she won't suddenly lose the level showcased in South Beach.
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Before Miami, the 19-year-old had only two main draw wins on the Tour and she had never been ranked inside the top-100. But after the second part of the Sunshine Double - where she competed as a wildcard - the 140th-ranked Filipina has three wins over Grand Slam champions - she is a WTA 1000 semifinalist - and will improve 65 spots on Monday and be ranked at No. 75 in the world.
En route to writing tennis history for her country and becoming the first Filipina to reach a WTA 1000 semifinal, Eala shocked Iga Swiatek, Madison Keys and Jelena Ostapenko. And she wasn't that far away from also making the final as world No. 4 Jessica Pegula was made to work hard before registering a 7-6 (3) 5-7 6-3 win.
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Eala: My goal is to keep this up
To have a week like this, the stars need to align and they did this week. Hopefully I can keep that up. That is my goal now, to keep this up. But there are so many times in tennis where you have to dig out the dirt to look for the positive and now Im enjoying it because theres so much positive around me and I dont know how many times that has happened, so Im just lucky to have been able to experience these two weeks," the 19-year-old said.
After beating Swiatek, Eala's performance and game were praised by the five-time Grand Slam champion. Following a semifinal loss to Pegula, another praise came the Filipina's way as the 2024 US Open finalist called her "a really good tennis player."
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Going forward, there will certainly be a lot more attention on Eala and that will probably bring some pressure. But all of that is a part of the process and it will be interesting to see how the Miami Open sensation does in the foreseeable future.
