Tennis: Who is Alexandra Eal, a teenager in the WTA Miami 2025 semifinal?

Miami. Only nineteen -year -old Alexandra Eal of Manila on the Philippines warmed the whole tennis world after she advanced to the semifinals of the Miami Open tournament. She played in Florida in life and set new records of Philippine tennis.

Eal grew up in a sports family. Her grandfather was a passionate club player who and her brother Michael, he taught her to play tennis.

Her mother Rosemarie Maniego-Eal was a swimmer and in 1985 she competed at Southeast Asia games in Bangkok, where she won a bronze medal.

In the end, Alexandra decided to change her leisure activity to her future when she became a student of the Rafael Nadal Academy at Manacor as a 13-year-old.

Successful as a junior

The results came in 2020, when alongside Indonesian tennis player Priska Madelyn Nugroh won the junior doubles title at the Australian Open.

Video: Ealová’s cut – Swiatek at the Miami tournament

A few months later she introduced herself at the Junior Roland Garros, where, in addition to training with Iga Swiatek, she achieved historical success for her country – she became the first Philippine player in 35 years to reach the semi -final of the junior Grand Slam.

The following year was also successful on the ITF circuit, when she triumphed in the W15 category in Manacore in January. Cooperation with Russian player Oksana Selekhmetevová brought her another triumph – together they won the junior French Open.

« When you think about the history of Roland Garros, it would be an honor to triumph in the place where it won and competed as many amazing players and survive the same experience as them, » Eal said before the Grand Slam.

An unforgettable victory

In 2022, in addition to the title at the ITF tournament of the W25 category in Chiang Rai, she also scored a junior Grand Slam triumph in the US Open.

In the finals, as the ten deployed, the Czech player beat Lucia Havlíčková 6: 2, 6: 4.

« Being crowned with the US Open junior champion in New York was simply magical and it is a victory I will never forget. No one can ever take it again, » she wrote in her blog for ITF.

Fashion icon

In November of the same year, he approached Eal’s Vogue magazine Philippines to become a model on the front page.

« When I learned it, I was excited and I was literally going to go, » she admitted.

In her words, she never imagined herself on the Vogue envelope, but thanks to this occasion she learned something new outside the tennis court.

It considers this to be a learning process and is open to similar challenges in the future. « This success is the result of hard work and success on the court, » she added.

Debut in the top 100

Thanks to the free card, the native of Manila got to the Miami Open tournament, where she managed to conquer American Katie Volynets and two Grand Slam champions – Latvian Jelena Ostapenka and American Madison Keys.

She became the first Philippine to beat the player from the Top 10 and the Grand Slam winner.

« There are many people in the world that we can look at, but I hope that my success will help Philippine tennis take the next step forward, » Eal said.

Video: Ealová’s EALLY – Pegul’s Tournament in Miami

In the eight -finals she was supposed to meet Spain Paul Badosová, but she did not start for back pain, so Eal advanced directly to the quarterfinals.

There was waiting for the world number two Iga Swiatek, who last met almost two years ago in the Academy of Rafael Nadal.

This time Eal has achieved the greatest victory of her career and thanks to the advance to the semifinals she secured her premiere participation in the top 100 WTA ranking.

« We didn’t want it to be an easy match for IgA. We wanted it to feel that we would fight from the first to the last point.

At times, everything moved very slowly – three gems lasted 20 minutes. This began to bring her doubts into the game. We needed to play aggressively and hit the winning blows, otherwise IgA would gradually destroy us, « said her coach Joan Bosch.

End in the semifinals

In the semi -final of the Miami Open tournament, Alexandra Eal met with the World Four Jessica Pegul.

After almost two and a half hours, however, the home tennis player won the sets 7: 6, 5: 7, 6: 3.

Despite the loss of Filipinka, she showed her talent and huge potential.

In the new issue of the WTA ranking, it will be 75. The place – which is a historical success for Philippine tennis.

The author writes for the portal tbtennis.cz.