WTA1000 Miami: Alex Eala vs Iga Swiatek quarterfinal analysis
How Eala upset Swiatek and stunned the tennis world
Tennis has the magical power of delivering periodic fairytale runs that take the world by surprise. This week in Miami, Alex Eala (WTA #144) produced one of the most dazzling breakthrough campaigns of this century by defeating three Major champions — Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek — in succession to reach the semis.
To understand the giant leap taken by the 19-year Filipina over the last 10 days, these were her career stats when she arrived in South Florida:
career-high ranking #134, reached in January 2025
just 2 main draw wins on the WTA Tour
never past the second round at a WTA Tour event
best win by ranking: #41 Lesia Tsurenko, 2024 WTA 1000 Madrid
0-4 record against Top-40 opponents
yet to face a Top-20 player
What Eala lacked in big-match experience she more than made up with unwavering belief, contagious positivity, relentless effort and audacious bravery to carve her name in her nation’s sporting history.
Known for so often steamrolling lesser ranked opponents, Swiatek hadn’t lost to a player outside the Top-50 since Wimbledon 2023; and Elina Svitolina’s #75 at the time was an outlier and just a consequence of her prior maternity leave.
Against players ranked outside the Top-100, Swiatek had been unbeaten for exactly 4 years, since a third round loss to #350 Ana Konjuh at Miami 2021. So Eala’s win over the former world #1 is a strong candidate for one of the great upsets in recent years.
Let’s now take a deep look at how Eala accomplished such monumental victory. These were the key factors we identified:
Return pressure
Down-the-line forehands and medium-length rallies dominance
Swiatek’s unrest, return performance and forehand implosion
1. Return pressure
A huge part of Eala’s gameplan was hitting aggressive returns. She did it by constantly stepping well inside the court to take on Swiatek’s 1st and 2nd serves.
📺 source: WTA Tv
By the end of the match, Eala totalled 2 return winners and another 8 quality replies that extracted “serve+1” forced errors from Swiatek.
Eala’s Return Performance
2 return winners
8 forcing returns
8 return errors
Even when the teenager had to stretch for the ball, she still managed to come up with a few deep replies, like the one shown below, and take command of the point.
The relentless pressure created by this barrage of fast, low-bouncing and deep returns rushed Swiatek and never allowed her to settle into a rhythm.