"The feel, the understanding, I love it": Mats Wilander full of praise for Alexandra Eala after incredible run at Miami Open

Former world number one Mats Wilander has heaped praise on the Philippines’ young tennis sensation Alexandra Eala after her impressive run at the recently concluded Miami Open. The 19-year-old was the real surprise package during the recently concluded WTA 1000 event in Miami as her journey ended after she lost in the semifinal to the 2024 US Open runner-up, America’s Jessica Pegula, with a score of 7-6, 5-7, 6-3.

During her way to the semifinal, Eala defeated three Grand Slam winners. She got the better of the reigning world number two, Poland’s Iga Swiatek, in the quarterfinal in straight sets with a score of 6-2, 7-5. In the third round, the youngster defeated the 2025 Australian Open champion Madison Keys in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 6-2. In the second round, Eala secured another straight-set win against the 2017 French Open winner Latvia’s Jeļena Ostapenko with a score of 7-6, 7-5.

Former world number one Wilander has recently spoken to TNT Sports where he praised Eala. The 60-year-old stated that looking at how the 19-year-old plays, it feels like her hands are a gift of ‘God’. Wilander also predicted that Eala, who is ‘too gifted’ has all the qualities to become one of the ‘greats’ of the game.

"With Alexandra Eala, we're talking about someone who has hands given by God," said. "She understands the game as good as any player on tour. She reminds me of Marcelo Rios, where the talent is just boiling out of the fingers and boiling out of her hand, and she can do anything. And then the reason I say Marcelo Rios is, of course, she's left-handed. In the women's game, that is so cool that we have someone that comes out that does all these things that maybe [Aryna] Sabalenka and Swiatek are not great at doing. They're great at other things. But suddenly, we have a player that can play tennis that is mystical to the rest of us. Like, 'Oh, my God, how do you do that? How do you understand tennis? How do you hit those shots?' The feel, the understanding, I love it. It's basically what John McEnroe did to us in the 1980s. To me, Eala is such a breath of fresh air and I don't think that she's going to go away, she's too smart, her talent is too good, she's too gifted. She learned how to win when she was 12, so that's not a problem. We're going to love watching her develop into a great player, because I do think that she's going to become one."