Rising Filipina star Eala stuns Swiatek to reach Miami Open semis. Filipina prodigy Eala pulls off Swiatek upset to enter Miami Open semifinals.
Philippine wild card Alexandra Eala scored by far the biggest victory in her young career with a stunning 6-2 7-5 upset of world number two Iga Swiatek of Poland on Wednesday to advance her dream Miami Open run into the semifinals.
The big-hitting 19-year-old showed no visible intimidation playing one of her idols and was a picture of poise as she quickly broke down Swiatek’s serve to seize control of the match that she never relinquished.
“I don’t know what to say, I mean, complete just disbelief right now and I’m on cloud nine,” said Eala in her on-court interview.
“It’s forever in my heart.”
Playing on the match with extra security after a spectator had verbally abused her over the weekend, Swiatek could not hold serve in the first set while Eala was swinging freely and unleashing winners from all parts of the court.
Five-times Grand Slam champion Swiatek had a staggering 19 unforced errors in the opening set and was then given some advice from her coach before leaving the court for a few minutes.
In the second set, Eala came back from being down 4-2, then held on as Swiatek attempted to serve out the set at 5-4 before closing it out for good with her eighth break of the match.
Eala’s upset of Swiatek was the third Grand Slam winner she had eliminated from the women’s draw, having previously upset the Australian Open champion Madison Keys and the 2017 French Open winner, Jelena Ostapenko.
Next up for Eala is the winner of the other quarter-final match of the day between fourth-seeded American Jessica Pegula and 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu of Britain.
On the men’s side No 1 seed Alexander Zverev was upset by Arthur Fils 3-6 6-3 6-4 as the upcoming Frenchman reached the quarterfinals of a Masters 1000 tournament for the second time in succession after achieving the milestone at Indian Wells earlier this month.
The 6-foot-5 German thumped an ace to take the first set but the 17th-seeded Fils flipped in the second, stealing an early break and blasting a cross-court winner to even the match.
Zverev took a 3-1 lead in the decider but soon started misfiring as his normally reliable backhand let him down at crucial points and his opponent started to draw on the crowd’s energy.
Highlights
Fils, 20, then served out the match confidently to reach a quarter-final showdown against 19-year-old Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic.
“In the third set I thought it was over almost, 3-1, he’s serving great,” Fils said after the match, which had been pushed back a day because of rain.
“But I said don’t get angry, just try to play as much as you can, try to fight and if you have a break, beautiful. And it happened.”
The night session, however, is capped off with Serbian fourth seed Novak Djokovic looking for a record-extending seventh Miami title, facing American 24th seed Sebastian Korda for a place in the semi-finals.
The other quarter-final today sees Bulgarian 14th seed Grigor Dimitrov take on Argentine Francisco Cerundolo.