Philippine wildcard Alexandra Eala pulled off the biggest win of her young career with a stunning 6-2 7-5 upset of Polish world number two Iga Swiatek on Wednesday to extend her dream run at the Miami Open into the semi-finals.
The big-hitting 19-year-old showed no signs of being intimidated playing against one of her idols and was instead a picture of poise as she dismantled Swiatek's serve early on to grab control of the match 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 in her on-court interview.
"It's forever in my heart."
Swiatek, who was 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.
In the second set Eala managed to overturn a 4-2 deficit and then held her nerve while Swiatek tried to serve out the set 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 the winner of the day's other quarter-final between American fourth seed Jessica Pegula and 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu of Britain.
FILS STOPS ZVEREV
On the men's side top seed Alexander Zverev was upset by Arthur Fils 3-6 6-3 6-4 as the rising Frenchman made the quarter-finals of a Masters
Read more on channelnewsasia.com
channelnewsasia.com
