THE RISING ONE

Alex Eala stunned world No. 2 Iga Swiatek with a 6-2, 7-5 victory at the Miami Open during their quarterfinal match — marking her career’s biggest win and igniting greater tennis dreams for the 19-year-old.
The 19-year-old was gunning for a place in the title match against American Jessica Pegula, but already, Eala added another milestone after advancing to the final four of the WTA 1000 event.
Eala became just the third wild-card entry to reach the Miami Open semifinals. The win over Swiatek—which came after she conquered Grand Slam champions Jelena Ostapenko and Madison Keys—has certainly announced Eala’s coming as a force on tour as she has climbed into the top 75 of the live world rankings while already set to rake in her biggest paycheck to date.

It was quite easy to see how hard Alex Eala contained her emotions after an Iga Swiatek shot went way past the baseline on Thursday morning in Manila, which sealed a 6-2, 7-5 win over the world No. 2 and shoved the Filipino into the semifinals of the Miami Open.

“I’m in complete disbelief right now, I’m on cloud nine,” Eala said in her on-court interview after she bundled out the biggest foe of her young, budding pro career.

“I really tried to soak it all in, because this has never happened to me before, and that’s why I was looking at the screen,” Eala said of the look on her face after showing Swiatek the door in an hour and 37 minutes. “I really wanted to keep that moment in my mind.’’

The 19-year-old was gunning for a place in the title match against American Jessica Pegula, but already, Eala added another milestone after advancing to the final four of the WTA 1000 event. Eala became just the third wild-card entry to reach the Miami Open semifinals, and the ones that came before her were former No. 1s chasing one last shot at glory when they achieved that feat and are now considered all-time greats.

The disbelief on Alex Eala’s face after her latest win was quite understandable. —REUTERS

Belgian star Justine Henin reached the semifinals here as a wild card in 2010 before Victoria Azarenka of Belarus repeated the trick in 2018.

Both stars were in the twilight of their careers, but making it to the main draw was never a given, even for former top-ranked players.

Both Henin and Azarenka held on to the world No. 1 ranking for a combined 168 weeks and won a total of nine Grand Slam titles, numbers that can certainly make for good targets as far as Eala is concerned.

“I’ve always been a big dreamer,” Eala said.

“I’ve never been in a major tournament this long, so I’m definitely enjoying that. But I’m still hungry, and I’m still motivated.”

The win over Swiatek—which came after she conquered Grand Slam champions Jelena Ostapenko and Madison Keys—has certainly announced Eala’s coming as a force on tour as she has climbed into the top 75 of the live world rankings while already set to rake in her biggest paycheck to date.

Miami, FL, USA; Alexandra Eala (PHL) hits a forehand against Iga Swiatek (POL)(not pictured) on day nine of the Miami Open at Hard Rock Stadium. —PHOTOS BY GEOFF BURKE-IMAGN IMAGES

Rooting for Alex

Though Eala represents the Philippines, she has lived the last six years in Mallorca in Spain, training at the Rafael Nadal Academy.

“I would love to think that I make a difference,” Eala said. “That’s the only thing I can do to give back to my country is to help inspire, to inspire change and positive change, to inspire people to pick up a racket, to watch more tennis, watch more women’s tennis.”

Swiatek broke Eala in the first game, but the teenager broke right back. The first two games took 15 minutes to play, and she never lost her poise.

“I don’t have a lot of experience on the WTA Tour, that’s for sure, but I do have experience with compartmentalizing,” Eala said. “ I have experience with being professional. I have no hesitation to bring that part of me out when I’m on court.”

Swiatek held serve just twice in the match, with Eala pounding service returns with her big forehand. It marked Swiatek’s third loss to a player ranked outside the top 100 in a WTA main draw.

“Her being a lefty didn’t surprise me, but for sure, like, she went all in,” Swiatek said. “She made these returns in and pretty long, and so it wasn’t easy to hit it back. She was pretty loosened up and just went for it.”

On set point, Swiatek rapped a forehand long, ending the set in 42 minutes.

Pegula, meanwhile, scored a 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-2 winner over Emma Raducanu of Britain to set the stage against Eala.

And again, just like all sporting heroes in the Philippines, this basketball-enamored country will be rooting for the prodigious teen, united for but a fleeting moment and putting all political divisiveness aside.