Philippine wildcard Eala stuns Swiatek to reach Miami semis, Raducanu out

Philippine wildcard Alexandra Eala pulled off the biggest win of her young career with a 6-2 7-5 upset of Iga Swiatek at the Miami Open on Wednesday while Emma Raducanu's surprise run ended with a 6-4 6-7(3) 6-2 quarter-final loss to Jessica Pegula.

With the latter contest finishing close to 11.30 p.m., the men's quarter-final between Novak Djokovic and Sebastian Korda was pushed to Thursday under ATP rules aimed at avoiding matches dragging on into the early hours of the morning.

Explosive 19-year-old Eala showed no signs of being intimidated playing against one of her idols and was instead a picture of poise as she dismantled world number two Swiatek's serve early on and never looked back.

"I don't know what to say, I mean, complete just disbelief right now and I am on cloud nine," Eala said.

"It's forever in my heart."

Swiatek, playing the match with added security after being verbally abused by a spectator at the weekend, failed to hold serve throughout the first set, while Eala was swinging freely as she unleashed winners from all over the court.

Five-times Grand Slam champion Swiatek hit a staggering 19 unforced errors in the opening set and then received some advice from her coach before briefly leaving the court.

Eala overturned a 4-2 deficit in the second set and held her nerve when Swiatek was trying to serve it out at 5-4 before ultimately closing it out with her eighth break of the match.

The victory over Swiatek marked the third Grand Slam winner Eala has knocked out of the women's draw after earlier wins over Australian Open champion Madison Keys and 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko.

Up next will be American fourth seed Pegula, who overcame 2021 U.S. Open champion Raducanu to reach her third semi-final in