Alexandra Eala's breakthrough run to the Miami Open semifinals: 10 of the best stats and records

Filipina teenager Alexandra Eala was the breakthrough star of the Miami Open this year, coming from virtually out of nowhere to make it all the way to the semifinals of the WTA 1000 tournament, taking out top player after top player—and rewriting all kinds of history—along the way.

Here are just 10 of the best stats from the 19-year-old’s magical run:

She became the first woman from the Philippines to defeat a Grand Slam champion at a tour-level event in the Open Era. And she did it three times: 2017 Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko in the second round, 2025 Australian Open champion Madison Keys in the third round and, most famously, five-time Grand Slam winner Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals.

Since WTA rankings began in 1975, she’s the first woman from the Philippines to defeat a Top 30 player. And she did that three times, too—Ostapenko, Keys and Swiatek are No. 25, No. 5 and No. 2, respectively.

Those were actually her first three career matches against Top 25 players. And she wasn’t far from improving to 4-0 against Top 25 players, falling to No. 4-ranked Jessica Pegula in the semifinals, 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-3.

She also became the first woman from the Philippines to reach a WTA semifinal. And she did it at a 96-draw WTA 1000 event, too.

And just how out of nowhere was her run? Eala was 2-14 in her career in tour-level matches going into Miami. She had never even won back-to-back tour-level matches in her career before, but won four in a row—over Katie Volynets, Ostapenko, Keys and Swiatek—en route to the semifinals.

At No. 140, she was the second-lowest ranked woman ever to reach the semifinals of Miami, since the women’s event began in 1985. That record belongs to Victoria Azarenka, who was ranked No. 186 when she made the semifinals in 2018, in just her fourth event back from maternity leave.

And by defeating Swiatek, she became the lowest-ranked woman ever to beat a Top 2 opponent in Miami. She’s the only woman ranked outside the Top 100 to do it, the lowest before her being Daria Gavrilova, who was No. 97 when she beat No. 2-ranked Maria Sharapova there in 2015.

She equaled the best result ever by a women’s wild card in Miami. Justine Henin also made the semis as a wild card in 2010, as did Azarenka in 2018.

She also became first wild card to defeat three Grand Slam champions in straight sets at a single WTA event. She rallied from 4-0 down in the first set for a 7-6 (2), 7-5 win over Ostapenko, then beat Keys, 6-4, 6-2, then rallied from 4-2 down in the second set for a 6-2, 7-5 win over Swiatek.

And finally, her prize money earnings from her two weeks in Miami are almost exactly two thirds of her entire career prize money earnings coming into the tournament. She came in with $498,901 and a semifinalist in Miami picks up a $332,160 paycheque—which is 66.6%.

Also, she’ll now make her Top 100 debut, projected to soar from No. 140 to approximately No. 75. That shatters her previous career-high of No. 134.

With that, she’s almost guaranteed to make her Grand Slam main draw debut at Roland Garros in two months. She’s played Grand Slam qualifying six times before but has never made it through to a main draw.