Rafael Nadal has been closely following Alexandra Eala`s impressive performance at the Miami Open WTA 1000 tournament. Eala is a former student of Nadal`s tennis academy.
19-year-old Eala has achieved a historic milestone this week at Hard Rock Stadium. She is the first tennis player from the Philippines in the Open Era to win three, and now four, main-draw matches at a WTA 1000 event. Eala, who received a wild card for the Miami Open, started by winning against American player Katie Volynets. She then triumphed over No. 25 seed Jelena Ostapenko with a score of 7-6(2), 7-5.
Continuing her winning streak, she achieved a decisive 6-4, 6-2 victory against Australian Open champion Madison Keys. However, her most significant achievement came on Wednesday when she shocked World No. 2 Iga Swiatek in straight sets. This victory makes her only the third teenage wild card in the last 40 years to defeat a Top 2 ranked opponent.
Her win against Ostapenko was also historic, marking Eala as the first female player representing the Philippines to defeat a Top 30 player since the WTA rankings were introduced in 1975, and even a Top 10 player. She is currently the only professional tennis player from the Philippines, male or female, holding a world ranking.
Throughout the first week of the tournament, Nadal, whom Eala idolizes and who retired from tennis last year, has been supporting the young player from afar.
After her victory over Ostapenko, Nadal congratulated Eala on her achievement in a post on X, previously known as Twitter.
`Congratulations Alex! What a great win for you and for [the Philippines],` Nadal posted.
Eala, who is a left-handed player and uses Babolat racquets like Nadal, has mentioned that moving to Mallorca to train at Nadal`s academy at the age of 13 was a turning point in her career. When she made history again by winning the junior US Open three years ago, her popularity in the Philippines, a country with almost 115 million people, soared. Before Miami Open, she had over 126,000 followers on Instagram, and has gained nearly 30,000 more during her current successful run. She has also been featured on magazine covers such as Tater and Vogue in her region.
Despite her growing fame, Eala emphasizes that the lessons she learned from Nadal have been crucial in helping her remain focused on improving her tennis skills.
`He is so grounded and he has achieved more than anything I could dream of,` she stated in an interview with Philippine broadcast network GMA, `and the fact that he is still so nice to everyone around here is very admirable from him.`
