It’s not often you hear of a 19-year-old tennis player rewriting the script of the sport on a global stage, but under the Miami sun, Alex Eala proves it’s more than just possible. On the storied courts of the Hard Rock Stadium, the Filipina wildcard just pulled off one of the biggest upsets in recent tennis history, besting world No. 2 Iga Świątek at the Miami Open quarterfinals with a 6-2, 7-5 victory. In a single match, she not only pulled off the biggest win of her career thus far, but made a statement for young women, teenage prodigies, and Philippine tennis on the world stage.
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A Week of Historic Firsts
Her career-defining win against Świątek wasn’t a one-off victory.
Days prior, on March 23, she stunned World No. 5 and Australian Open champion Madison Keys. That win made her the first Filipino to ever defeat a top-10 opponent in the Open Era and the first player ranked outside the top 100 to reach the Round 16 at a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 1000 event. Before that? She bested 25th seed and former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko.
Then came yesterday, March 26, when Eala won again. This time, with a fearless 6-2 7-5 upset of world No. 2 Iga Świątek in the quarterfinals. This adds the champion to Eala’s growing list of defeated giants, joining Keys and Ostapenko.
Winning for Women
It bears considering the parallels: In 2017, a then-20-year-old Japanese Naomi Osaka stunned the tennis community by defeating US Open champion Angelique Kerber in the first round. A year later, she won her first Grand Slam title. In 2021, Emma Raducanu, an unseeded teenager from Britain, shocked the world by winning the US Open at just 18 without dropping a set. And now, Eala joins the list of young women rewriting history.
Her journey thus far challenges the outdated notions that could influence how women perceive women in sports. She comes from the Philippines, a country without a deep history in the sport, where male athletes in basketball and boxing often dominate the headlines. Yet here she is, proving that opportunity should not be dictated by geography, gender, or expectations of any kind.
After match point, as Świątek’s final shot missed its mark, Eala stood still for a moment to let it all sink in—the stadium, the scoreboard, the gravity of what she had just accomplished. “I really tried to soak it all in because this has never happened to me before,” Eala said in the quarterfinal press conference. “That’s why I was looking at the screen; I really wanted to keep that moment in my mind.”
Eala has always shared her victories with the Philippines, but let her game do the talking—it’s also for every girl who’s ever been told she was too young, too small, or too far from the action to make it. In Miami, she just keeps proving that no dream is out of reach.
Up next, she faces the winner of the quarterfinal between Emma Raducanu and Jessica Pegula on March 28, 2025, at 8:30 AM Manila time. Follow real-time scoring and updates on the WTA website.
Featured Image and Photos: WTA (via Instagram)
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