World No. 2 Iga Swiatek of Poland moved one step closer to her first title of the year with a hard-fought 7-6(5), 6-3 victory over No. 22 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in the Round of 16 at the Miami Open.
Swiatek needed 2 hours and 5 minutes to battle past former World No. 3 Svitolina, completing the quarterfinal lineup at the year's fourth WTA 1000 event just after midnight on Tuesday morning.
Miami: Draws | Scores | Order of play
"It was much tougher to problem-solve, especially because Elina was also putting on some pressure," Swiatek said on court after her win. "I needed to adjust, and I’m happy that I picked the right moments at the end to play more aggressively, and sometimes I was more patient."
Fast facts: Swiatek is still alive in her quest for a second Miami Open title -- she won this event in 2022 to complete the Sunshine Double (winning Indian Wells and Miami in the same year). The only other women to complete the Sunshine Double are Stefanie Graf (twice), Kim Clijsters and Victoria Azarenka.
Swiatek is indeed titleless so far in 2025 -- but despite that fact, she is still the tour leader in main-draw match-wins for the year. Her win over Svitolina was her 21st of the season, moving her ahead of Mirra Andreeva and Aryna Sabalenka's 20 victories apiece.
Swiatek is also now 13-1 against Ukrainian players at Hologic WTA Tour events. Her only WTA Tour-level loss to a Ukrainian player was against Svitolina, in the 2023 Wimbledon quarterfinals.
Match moments: Swiatek was up a break on three separate occasions in the first set, but each of those times, Svitolina broke back in the very next game, and the pair naturally settled the opening frame in a tiebreak.
Svitolina battled back from 3-0 down in the breaker, but Swiatek used deep, heavy forehands on the humid night to keep herself from falling behind. Swiatek earned her first set point at 6-5 with a crosscourt backhand winner, and the Pole closed out the one-set lead with one last forehand winner after 62 grueling minutes.
In the second set, Swiatek had three break points to take a dominant 5-1 lead, but Svitolina swatted those away and was eventually able to pull back on serve at 4-3. However, Swiatek broke again in a challenging 5-3 game, and she powered her way to victory from there. Swiatek finished the match with 34 winners to Svitolina's 22.
Wild card awaits: Swiatek will now face an unexpected opponent in the quarterfinals: 19-year-old wild card Alexandra Eala of the Philippines.
Eala moved into the first Hologic WTA Tour quarterfinal of her career when her fourth-round opponent, No. 10 seed Paula Badosa, withdrew in advance of their match due to a lower back injury.
Even though she received a walkover today, World No. 140 Eala is not to be taken lightly. Eala had been 0-4 against Top 40 players coming into Miami, but had a breakthrough win over No. 25 Jelena Ostapenko in the second round and an even bigger win over No. 5 Madison Keys in the third round.
With those wins, Eala became the first Filipina woman in the Open Era to defeat Grand Slam singles champions at any WTA Tour event -- and now she will play another in five-time major champion Swiatek.
