A five-time Major winner, Iga Swiatek became the third and latest Grand Slam champion to fall against Alex Eala in her Miami Open Cinderella run.
World no. 2 Iga Swiatek was on the wrong end of history, Thursday, March 27.
An overwhelming favorite entering the match, the five-time Grand Slam champion instead became the the latest victim of Alex Eala’s giant-killing run in the 2025 Miami Open after a stunning 2-6, 5-7 quarterfinal loss.
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Swiatek lauded Eala’s unwavering fighting spirit in the match, noting how the Filipina tennis star remained composed all-game long en route to a first-ever WTA 1000 semifinal appearance.
“She went all out. She made those returns quite long, and it wasn’t easy to return those shots. Plus, she was very relaxed and went all out. She felt the rhythm was good, and that helped her,” the Polish tennister said.
Despite falling to a 4-2 hole in the second set, Eala was able to mount a comeback late and capitalized on Swiatek’s 32 unforced errors and even broke her serve a staggering eight times.
It also didn’t help that the 19-year-old won an impressive rate of 80% of her return games with the three-time French Open only managing to win just 59 points compared to 77 from Eala.
“I think it was just a really good return, and I wasn’t ready for the next ball. I’m sure I made a lot of mistakes, but I think I also made mistakes when I was crossing the ball,” Swiatek added.
It was just the third time that Iga lost to a player ranked outside the Top 100 in a WTA main draw, Back in 2019, Swiatek succumbed to then no. 6 Karolina Muchoova in the Prague Open, before getting the boot in the third round in Miami by 338th-ranked Ana Konjuh.
With the loss, the world no. 2 hasn’t reached a final of a tournament since winning Roland Garros last year.
“I didn’t know she was going to play so flat, but she was very aggressive and stayed on target the whole match. And a lot of these shots were coming out of nowhere. But I could still clearly see that she was trying to push forward and pressure me. So it worked out pretty well for her,” Swiatek ended.