Biggest win yet: Alex Eala shocks former French Open champion in Miami
MANILA, Philippines – Alex Eala proved she could overcome a huge lead and stage a comeback. She also showed she could fend off an opponent’s furious attack. All in the same match, and all against a former Grand Slam champion.
The Filipina teen standout shocked world No. 25 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, 7-6(2), 7-5, rallying from a seemingly insurmountable first-set deficit, then recovering after losing a huge second-set lead in the round of 64 of the Miami Open on Friday, March 21 (Saturday, March 22, Philippine time).
In pulling off the huge upset, Eala ticked off a number of firsts from her list — first time to notch a win over a multiple Grand Slam winner; first time to beat a player ranked in the top 25 in the world; first time to reach the third round of a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) event.
Another big name, though, awaits Eala in the next round as she goes up against world No. 5 and 2025 Australian Open champion Madison Keys of the United States on Sunday, March 23.
Ostapenko, once the No. 5 player in the world, just reached the finals of the 2025 WTA 1000 Qatar Open, where she took down world top 10 players — No. 7 Jasmine Paolini of Italy, former No. 2 Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, and longtime No. 1 and current second-ranked Iga Swiatek of Poland last February.
Eala did not allow Ostapenko’s glowing credentials to intimidate her. But neither did the victory come easy.
For a good part of the first set, Eala appeared overmatched against an opponent who won the French Open singles championship in 2017 and the US Open doubles titles in 2024.
Ostapenko’s powerful serves and groundstrokes forced Eala to scramble all over the court, and quite often, was a step late as the Latvian zoomed to a 4-0 advantage in the first set.
Eala then held serve and broke serve, both at love, to narrow the deficit to 4-2. Finding her rhythm, Eala would go on to sweep the next three games to wrest the driver’s seat at 5-4.
The 27-year-old Ostapenko, though, would not give an inch and forced a tiebreak. By this time, Eala already gained the confidence to believe she could hang with a top contender.
From a 1-1 tie, Eala raced to 4-1 and held on to the lead to prevail in the tiebreak, 7-2.
The second mirrored the opening set, conversely, with world No. 140 Eala pulling away early with a 4-0 lead.
Ostapenko, displaying the resilience that made her one of the best players in the world, responded by blanking Eala in the next five games to regain the lead and put herself in a position to extend the match to a third set.
Eala would not let this one slip away. The 19-year-old Filipina saved a set point in the 10th game to tie the score at 5-5, then broke for the fifth time in the match to seize the lead at 6-5.
There would be no tiebreak this time around with Eala holding serve in the seventh game to finish off Ostapenko in one hour and 55 minutes. – Rappler.com