Awesome Alexandra Eala seals biggest win of her career, dumps out Iga Swiatek to reach Miami Open semi-finals

Alexandra Eala continues to dazzle at the Miami Open. She has stunned World No.2 Iga Swiatek to reach the semi-finals in Florida defeating the former queen of women's tennis 6-2, 7-5.

Eala, the current World No.140 will face either Jessica Pegula or Emma Raducanu for a spot in the final. She became the first player from the Philippines to not only seal main draw wins but reach a WTA 1000 semi-final.

She has now beaten three Grand Slam champions on her way to the final four seeing off Madison Keys, Jelena Ostapenko and now Swiatek. She staved off a late fightback from Swiatek to seal the win in straight sets.

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Eala became a prodigy early doors during her career winning the 2022 US Open girls title and in particular is a graduate of the renowned Rafael Nadal Academy where she made her name as a child. She moved there when she was just 13 and was coached by Toni Nadal.

She is left-handed too just like the legendary Spaniard so gained a lot of plaudits early on but initially she failed to adapt to the senior game. Early on Swiatek was in trouble as Eala surged into the lead sweeping the opening set 6-2 and breaking to go 2-0 up.

Iga Swiatek suffers one of the worst losses of her career on paper.

She also showed great grit and resolve to return to the fore and hold off a superb fightback from Swiatek who was seen as nearly a 100% certainty to win this match. She has often thrived especially against marked underdogs but Eala had a fight that Swiatek couldn't match.

She was able to match Swiatek's play with an attacking style that bamboozled the multiple time Roland Garros champion and sealed a breakout run that is one of the best in many a year perhaps since Mirra Andreeva at the Madrid Open as a teenager. For Swiatek, big questions need to be asked. With security issues and a man harassing her this week, it hasn't been easy but that aside, her form hasn't been great for a long while and she currently doesn't hold any titles outside of clay.

Given the ranking of Eala and status in the game it is quite simple to say that it is one of Swiatek's worst ever losses despite the excellence of Eala in the end.

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