Rafael Nadal has been closely following Alexandra Eala`s impressive performance at the Miami Open WTA 1000 event.
19-year-old Eala has achieved a historic milestone this week at Hard Rock Stadium, becoming the first Filipino player in the Open Era to win four main-draw matches at a WTA 1000 tournament. Receiving a wild card entry, the world No. 140 player started by defeating American Katie Volynets and then upset No. 25 seed Jelena Ostapenko in a close match, 7-6(2), 7-5.
Following this, she achieved another victory with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Australian Open champion Madison Keys. However, her most significant achievement came on Wednesday when she stunned World No. 2 Iga Swiatek in straight sets. This victory made her only the third teenage wild card in the last 40 years to defeat a player ranked in the Top 2.
The victory over Ostapenko marked Eala as the first woman representing the Philippines to defeat a Top 30 player since the introduction of the PIF WTA Rankings in 1975, and even more impressively, a Top 10 player. She is also the sole player from the Philippines, male or female, to hold a professional tennis world ranking.
Throughout the first week of the tournament, Nadal, her idol who retired from tennis last year, has been supporting the young player from afar.
After her win against Ostapenko, Nadal congratulated Eala on her breakthrough via a post on X, formerly Twitter.
`Congratulations Alex! What a great win for you and for [the Philippines],` Nadal posted.
Eala, who like Nadal plays with Babolat racquets, has mentioned that moving to Mallorca at the age of 13 to train at Nadal`s academy was a transformative experience. Her popularity in the Philippines, a nation of almost 115 million people, skyrocketed after she made history by winning the junior US Open three years prior. Before Miami Open, she had over 126,000 Instagram followers, gaining nearly 30,000 more during her Miami run, and has been featured on magazine covers such as Tater and Vogue regionally.
Despite increasing fame, Eala credits lessons learned from Nadal for helping her maintain focus on improving her tennis skills.
`He is so grounded and he has achieved more than anything I could dream of,` she stated in an interview with Philippine broadcast network GMA, `and the fact that he is still so nice to everyone around here is very admirable from him.`
