Philippines teen Eala ousts Swiatek from Miami Open

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 semi-final of her career.
Eala, 19, is the first player from the Philippines to reach a tour-level semi-final, and is now guaranteed to become the first Filipina to be ranked inside the Top 100 of the PIF WTA Rankings next Monday.
“It’s just surreal,” said Eala. “I’m trusting my shots and I have a great team to tell me that I can do it,” she said. 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.
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.
Superstar Djokovic on a rollNovak Djokovic won 12 of the last 14 games of his match against Lorenzo Musetti to crush the Italian 6-2 6-2 and move into the quarter-finals of the Miami Open in his best performance since the Australian Open.
The momentum in the rain-delayed match seemed to swing in Djokovic’s favour when he complained to the chair umpire in the opening set over a serve clock warning. That frustration seemed to spark the Serbian, who broke the next game for a 4-2 lead and never looked back in the presence of an adoring crowd that included tennis greats Serena Williams and Juan Martin del Potro.
Next up for fourth-seeded Djokovic is American Sebastian Korda, who prevailed 6-4 2-6 6-4 over veteran Frenchman Gael Monfils earlier in the day.
Argentine Francisco Cerundolo upset three-times major finalist Casper Ruud 6-4 6-2 to reach the quarter-final of the tournament for the third time in four years.
On the women’s side, Italian sixth-seed Jasmine Paolini saved seven of the eight break points she faced to defeat Magda Linette and reach the semi-finals. Paolini will next face world number one and first-time Miami semi-finalist Aryna Sabalenka, who beat China’s Zheng Qinwen 6-2 7-5 in a rematch of their 2024 Australian Open final.