MIAMI -- Coming into Sunday’s third-round match at the Miami Open, Madison Keys had a monumental edge on Alexandra Eala in virtually every respect. Her WTA 1000 match-win total was 98 -- 95 more than the 19-year-old wild card from the Philippines -- and her No. 5 PIF WTA Ranking was 135 spots higher.
But when the widely unknown left-hander won eight of the first nine points, four of the first six games and ultimately the first set, it was clear something mysterious was at work.
Keys won the Australian Open this year, her first major singles title, and was bidding for her tour-leading 20th victory, but Eala -- stubbornly, bravely anchored to the baseline -- didn’t give in. She kept the surprisingly long rallies going and waited for Keys to crumble.
The final score out on the Grandstand court was 6-4, 6-2, and Eala is astonishingly into the Round of 16 at the Miami Open. Jumping for joy (literally), tears in her eyes, she fist-pumped her way to the stands and vigorously hugged members of her team.
“I don’t think I’ve had the time to process everything that’s happened,” Eala told reporters, “so I’m taking it step by step and just focusing on what I need to do next. It’s a big thing to take in, and I’m so super proud of what I was able to accomplish, but it definitely fuels me more.
“I know and it's in my mind that I have a next match, but I need to stop, and I need to recognize that what I did today was really amazing.”
This shouldn’t be considered any kind of random event, for Eala has been on the global tennis stage for nearly five years now.
Eala won the 2022 US Open junior girls title -- beating Mirra Andreeva in the quarterfinals. Yes, the same 17-year-old Andreeva who won the WTA 1000 titles in Dubai and Indian Wells and is ranked No. 6.
Previously, Eala had won a pair of Grand Slam junior doubles titles and reached the semifinals of the 2020 French Open juniors at the age of 15.
“I think every single player here has envisioned themselves as a successful tennis player,” Eala said. “This is the goal to do well on the WTA Tour, to win Slams. In the end, the goal is to win Slams, to get the rankings. I think this is a good step towards where I want to be.”
Flashback: The rise of Alexandra Eala making headlines in the Philippines and beyond
She’s the first Filipino player in the Open Era to score a WTA Top 10 win since the ranking system came into being in 1975. Eala is the first player ranked outside the Top 100 to reach the Round of 16 in a WTA 1000 event this season.
To put her accomplishment in context, her three main-draw match-wins at the Miami Open are more than all players from the Philippines combined in the Open Era in this event.
More trivia: Eala is the fourth wild card to defeat a Top 5 player at the Miami Open since ... we'll let you take your best guess here:
Despite two visits from the trainer (and one medical timeout for what appeared to be a leg injury), Eala kept her energy up and the pressure on.
The most critical point of the match: Keys’ double fault on Eala’s third break-point opportunity with Keys serving to level the third set at 3-all.
In the end, the numbers were telling: Keys finished with 51 unforced errors, against only 22 winners. Eala was more efficient, with 13 winners and only 21 unforced errors, and broke Keys six times.
“My game plan was to stick with what I know and to run,” Eala said. “I knew the situation. I knew that she was a great player. I knew that she was a big hitter, so I had to keep my legs on and take the opportunities that I could find.”
Keys had won 19 of 20 matches this year when she advanced to the semifinals a week ago at Indian Wells. She lost that match, 6-0, 6-1, to Aryna Sabalenka. After her second-round win over Elina Avanesyan and this result, she’s lost two of three.
“I don’t think I played great and I think she played really well,” Keys said afterward. Unfortunately, that’s kind of how tennis goes sometimes. My serve was not really there today and I kind of just felt a little flat. And when you’re playing someone who makes a ton of balls back and absorbs [power] really well, that’s not really the keys to success.”
Later, fellow American and No. 4 seed Jessica Pegula came back to defeat No. 32 seed Anna Kalinskaya 6-7 (3), 6-2, 7-6(2). She’ll play Marta Kostyuk, a 6-2, 6-1 winner over Anna Blinkova.
Eala competed in the WTA Future Stars event in 2016 and 2017 in Singapore and made her WTA Tour debut at 2021 Miami in qualifying. She spent most of her press conference filling in reporters on her backstory. Long story short: She left the Philippines at the age of 13 for Rafael Nadal’s Academy and has been practicing there for seven years. Coleman Wong, another Nadal prospect, is a “good friend” and still alive in the men’s draw after beating Ben Shelton.
On Monday, Eala will take on Paula Badosa for a spot in the quarterfinals. Badosa, a 6-3, 7-6(3) winner over Clara Tauson, appeared to suffer from a back injury that has recently plagued her. Badosa called for a medical timeout early in the second set and at the match’s conclusion directed someone to carry her rackets off the court.
