Filipina teenager Alexandra Eala's dream run at Miami Open ends with narrow defeat to Jessica Pegula
Filipina teenager Alexandra Eala's fairytale run at this year's Miami Open has come to an end after the 19-year-old lost to US star Jessica Pegula in the semifinals on Thursday.
Eala had made history with a string of impressive results at the tournament, where she beat grand slam champions such as Iga Świątek, Jelena Ostapenko and Madison Keys.
The current world No. 140 had hopes of reaching her first WTA final but saw that dream dashed by world No. 4 Pegula, with the American winning in three tight sets – 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-3.
Despite losing, Eala wore a beaming smile on her face before walking off the court, with the crowd applauding her for a memorable run.
'To have a week like this, the stars need to align and they did this week, and hopefully I can keep that up, that is my goal now, to keep this up,' Eala said, per BBC Sport.
Eala has been one of tennis' most exciting prospects for some time, winning the US Open girls' singles title in 2022 and the girls' doubles titles at the 2021 French Open and 2020 Australian Open.
Her 2022 victory vaulted her to stardom back home and led to her gracing the cover of Vogue Philippines soon after.
Three years on and it seems Eala has finally found her feet on the senior tour.
Her dream run in Miami saw her became the first Filipina to reach a WTA semifinal and she will also become the first Filipina to break into the world's top 100 after reaching the final four.
'She's really good. She's a really good tennis player, goes for her shots, takes the ball early, competes really well, she's beaten a lot of top players this week,' Pegula said after winning the match.
'I don't think she needs me to tell her that she's a great player, that we're not going to see enough of her. We definitely are, and she proved that tonight.'
Pegula will now face world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the Miami Open final.
Sabalenka booked her ticket in straight sets – 6-2, 6-2 – against Jasmina Paolini in the other semifinal on Thursday.
Despite all the success in her career, Sabalenka has never reached the final of the Miami Open but was grateful for elements of her game clicking during an impressive semifinal performance.
'I definitely say that this was one of the best matches in the season so far,' Sabalenka said after a dominant display where she hit 31 winners.
'I don't know. I was just so focused on myself, on the things I had to do today.
'It felt like everything was just, like, going smoothly my way. Yeah, super happy with the performance. I felt like I was in the zone.'
The Miami Open final will take place on Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Coco Gauff has three break points. She takes none
Follow reaction to Coco Gauff's French Open victory after the 21-year-old American's thrilling three-set battle with the World No. 1 Getty Images The Athletic Coco Gauff fought back from a set down to beat Aryna Sabalenka 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4 in a rollercoaster French Open final. It is the second Grand Slam singles triumph of Gauff's career and her maiden Roland Garros title, adding to the US Open title she won in 2023, also by beating Sabalenka. 'I was going through a lot of things when I lost here three years ago,' Gauff said after her victory, referencing her straight sets defeat to Iga Swiatek in the 2022 final. 'I'm just glad to be back here. I was going through a lot of dark thoughts. Three finals ... I guess I got the most important win. That's all that matters.' Sabalenka recovered from a 4-1 deficit in an exciting first set tiebreak only to make a huge number of mistakes in the second and third as Gauff seized control. 'This hurts so much,' the World No. 1 said afterwards. 'Congratulations to Coco, she was a better player than me.' Get involved: live@ GO FURTHER French Open final: Coco Gauff beats Aryna Sabalenka to win second Grand Slam title Connections: Sports Edition Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Getty Images Gauff *3-4 Sabalenka Sabalenka goes long, 10 points in a row, and another unforced error, 11 on the bounce! Gauff has definitely stepped it up, but how has she lost that feel so quickly? Tennis is such a mental game at times like these. Sabalenka needs to slow things down, take her time, trust her processes. Oosh, wide and into the tramlines, 12 points in a row. She chews her lip unhappily. Three break points! One saved as Gauff isn't accurate enough. Two saved as Sabalenka whips a brutal forehand into space. And three saved, Sabalenka has dug herself out! Gauff goes down on her haunches to hit a flat backhand and Sabalenka just unleashes another winner. Deuce. Catharsis, thy name is Aryna. This game is still alive, though. Gauff goes for it, error, then nets a backhand return, back to deuce. Getty Images Nine straight points for Gauff, to go from 4-1, 40-0 down to 4-3. Spike Lee is loving it! Sabalenka rapidly going off the boil here. Up until this game, Gauff had committed more errors despite taking far less risk on her groundstrokes than Sabalenka is doing with her first-strike attack. Getty Images Gauff 3-4* Sabalenka Sabalenka maybe a touch over-aggressive, 15-0 down, five straight points lost and now Sabalenka is the one chuntering away unhappily and glancing uncertainly to her box. Oh, that's top. Long rally, covering the whole court, Gauff comes into the net and curls a looping parabola back over a helpless Sabalenka's head. Gauff goes 40-0 up, then holds to love. Not long ago, Sabalenka looked irresistible, borderline unplayable. Not so now. Getty Images Gauff *2-4 Sabalenka Early days, of course. But Sabalenka looks in fearsome form out there at the moment. Not sure anyone in the women's game could live with her. Even her bad shots are coming off! A frankly awful drop shot, Gauff seizes on it desperately... and overcooks it. Now 40-0, and could this be her third game in six she wins to love? No. Error, and then Gauff shows her the quality of drop shot Sabalenka should be aiming for. At 40-30, the red brick dust swirls around behind Sabalenka's head and she has to set up a serve several times. Double fault for deuce! Sabalenka complains to her box but you can't do much about the weather, Aryna. Poor drop shot from Sabalenka, just becomes a setup for Gauff, who feints right and slaps it left for a winner. Break point... And Sabalenka nets! Gauff with a shout of 'Come on!'. Four points in a row from 40-0 down. Such minerals from the American. Getty Images Gauff 1-4* Sabalenka From deuce, a rollicking return at Gauff's toes and that's advantage back to her opponent. Decent serve from Gauff... but in a French Open final, decent isn't good enough. Sabalenka creams her return back past a static Gauff. A sizzler of a forehand winner. Getty Images That was seven straight lost points on serve before Coco saved triple break point. If she gets back to level in this set, those three saves will have been a big turning point. Getty Images Gauff 1-3* Sabalenka Super setup from Sabalenka, who draws Gauff in with the drop shot, before settling into a strong foundation and pinging a rocket of a backhand passing shot down the line. Sabalenka goes hard to Gauff's backhand side, and it's long. 0-30. Gauff gives a little nod to herself in acknowledgement. But that's not what she wanted! Another miscue off a duff part of the racket and it's miles out. 0-40 and three more break points. Sabalenka long, unforced error, and the Belarusian grimaces. Big serve down the T, return long, two saved! And a third as she maneuvers Sabalenka into the corner then swats away a volley, imbuing it with the annoyance and frustration of the match so far. Cracking serve again, advantage... but she nets. Deuce. We saw Sabalenka use her first-strike tennis to knock down Iga Świątek early in their semifinal. Świątek responded in two ways: flattening out her own strikes to match Sabalenka's, and returning from a bit deeper to get into rallies, in which she could move Sabalenka all about the court. Gauff's forehand grip, like Świątek's, is extreme enough that flattening out is a bit difficult, and she doesn't have the vicious, spinning power behind her ball that Świątek could use to rip the initiative away from Sabalenka in the second set of their match. So Gauff needs to do what Świątek did: extend rallies, move Sabalenka, take away the first strike. Her groundstroke artillery just isn't as heavy. It's going to be tough. The wind's picked up a little, and may have contributed to that complete mishit from Gauff to fall down 3-1. Getty Images Gauff *1-3 Sabalenka Not so good and then good from Gauff, who on the stretch can only volley a backhand at the net straight down, before ripping one beyond Sabalenka. Taste of her own medicine. Now this is interesting. Sabalenka is tossing the ball pretty high for her serve and the ball is catching in the wind a bit, which she mentions to the umpire, before missing the first serve. Again the second is good, and Gauff errs, 30-15. Gauff clearly trying to match the aggression and speed on Sabalenka's balls, and it works there as Sabalenka is rushed into netting for 30-all. A near-unplayable serve at a potentially tricky part of the game. Ace. Gauff looks impassive. Ah, Gauff's eyes light up at a central forehand in the slot but she mishits it. 3-1. Getty Images Takeaway from three games... Sabalenka is trying to attack Gauff's strength, which is her running. She's moving the ball around the court rather than trying to hit through it. That should pay big dividends if she can keep Gauff from camping in the back to defend. Getty Images And there's the first double fault for Coco, often her Achilles heel. It gives Sabalenka an opening at 0-30, which she tuns into a break to love. Eight straight points for Sabalenka, who crunched a pair of backhands to seal that break. Gauff 1-2* Sabalenka Uh oh. Gauff goes wide, and worried about Sabalenka's brutal response to most second serves, overdoes it and double-faults. 0-30. Stinging return, return plus one whistles past Gauff's left. Sabalenka then sends Gauff careering to her left again, super get, before flipping her to the far right of the court. Again, Gauff has the foot speed to get there, but Sabalenka can calmly steer a volley into open court. A break to love after a hold to love. Sabalenka is cooking. Getty Images There's the first drop shot from Sabalenka. Increasingly such an important part of her arsenal. It works well, drawing a missed Gauff forehand for 40-0. Sabalenka holds to love to level things at 1-1. Getty Images Gauff *1-1 Sabalenka Wow, Aryna Sabalenka laughs in the face of danger and looks jeopardy in the whites of its eyes. She flings loads of torque into a second serve and it's an ace out wide! You don't see that often. Another booming drive to Gauff's right, 30-0. Sabalenka has the silk as well as the steel, though, throwing in a drop shot and even the quickest player on the tour can't capitalise, spooning her cross-court effort wide. Big serve, again, return wide. 1-1. Getty Images It's a warmish afternoon, not much of a breeze. Pretty mild conditions. Big noise for Gauff as she holds to 30 to take the first game of the match. Seems like the crowd are pretty evenly split at this point, we'll see how that develops as the match goes on. Gauff 1-0* Sabalenka Gauff's first serve is wide but Sabalenka then goes long on the second, 15-0 in the first point of the match and a nice little nerve-settle for the slight underdog. Two wild swipes after robust returns from Sabalenka, 15-30, but a big serve makes it 30-30. Sabalenka is on top of the rally after eyeing up a slower second serve, but Gauff changes the pace with a slice and Sabalenka nets. A seriously spinning forehand into the bottom-right corner of the court and Sabalenka nets again. Getty Images Top seed Aryna Sabalenka against second seed Coco Gauff. On the red clay of Court Philippe-Chatrier, Roland Garros' show court, the showpiece at the 2025 French Open. Gauff to serve first. And it's live!
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
This week's TV: Julianne Moore in ‘Echo Valley,' the BET Awards, and Ryan Reynolds narrates a nature doc
BET Awards Tonight at 8 p.m. on BET: High-energy funnyman and ubiquitous 'brand ambassador' Advertisement US Open Thursday on Peacock, USA Network, and NBC: The 125th US Open tees off at Pennsylvania's Oakmont Country Club course. The competition will run until the finals on June 15. Watch out for longshot qualifiers 17-year-old high school junior Mason Howell, who's been playing the game since he was 3, and 34-year-old former Oakmont caddie turned dentist Matt Vogt. Odds-on favorites include champs Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler. Advertisement 'Father' Friday on Hulu: Atsuko Okatsuka lands a second comedy special entitled 'Father,' following her 2022 HBO solo special, 'The Intruder.' The LA-based Taiwanese American stand-up, actress, and writer (who's only the second Asian-American woman to have her own HBO comedy special), cites Margaret Cho among her inspirations. Here, exchanging HBO for Hulu's Hularious comedy slate, Okatsuka debunks her fans' claims that she's maternal in a one-hour stand-up showcase. They've got it all wrong, she corrects. She is, in fact, 'Father,' and riffs on her estrangement from the family washing machine, among other daffy domestic anecdotes. 'Underdogs' Sunday at 9 p.m. on NatGeo, simulcast on ABC, then streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu: Instead of scrolling through reels to watch a lion fending off a mama giraffe while munching on her baby's lollipop head, switch on wry Thelma Adams is a cultural critic and the author of the best-selling historical novel ' ,' about Josephine Marcus, the Jewish wife of Wyatt Earp.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Alcaraz stuns Sinner in all-time great French Open final
Carlos Alcaraz saved three championship points as he produced an astonishing fightback from two sets down to beat Jannik Sinner in a French Open final for the ages on Sunday. Reigning champion Alcaraz rallied from the brink of defeat to overcome world number one Sinner 4-6, 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (10/2) after five hours and 29 minutes to clinch his fifth Grand Slam title. The 22-year-old Spaniard is now unbeaten in five Grand Slam finals after snapping Sinner's 20-match winning run at the majors. "This was the most exciting match that I've played so far without a doubt," said Alcaraz. "I think the match had everything." Alcaraz pulled off his first ever comeback from two sets down in the longest Roland Garros final in history, recovering from 5-3 down in the fourth set when Sinner had three match points. "Today was all about believing in myself. Never doubted myself today and I tried to go for it," he said. "Real champions are made in those situations." Alcaraz is the first man to win a Grand Slam title after saving match point since Novak Djokovic beat Roger Federer in the 2019 Wimbledon final. The only other man to do it in the Open era was Gaston Gaudio at Roland Garros in 2004. Sinner fell agonisingly short of a third successive Grand Slam crown after last year's US Open title and back-to-back Australian Open triumphs. "It's easier to play than talking now," said a devastated Sinner. "I won't sleep very well tonight but it's OK. "We try to delete it somehow and take the positive and keep going. There are no other ways," he added. "It hurts, but you cannot keep crying." Sinner suffered his fifth straight loss to Alcaraz in what was their first meeting in a Grand Slam final -- and the first championship match at a major between two men born in the 2000s. Alcaraz leads 8-4 overall having also beaten Sinner in the final in Rome, where the Italian returned to competition in May after a three-month doping ban. - Sinner floored by Alcaraz comeback - Alcaraz put the pressure on Sinner by carving out three break points to start Saturday's final, but the Italian resisted and soon had a chance of his own. He couldn't take advantage and found himself having to fend off two more break points at 1-1, producing clutch serves to grind out another tough hold. Alcaraz's persistence paid off in the fifth game when he broke to nudge 3-2 ahead, only for the Spaniard to immediately hand the lead back. The unshakeable Sinner threatened to break again at 4-3, with a brief lapse from Alcaraz eventually enabling Sinner to snatch the first set. Sinner hit the accelerator to start the second set, surging 3-0 in front. After facing seven break points in the opener, he tightened up considerably on serve. But Alcaraz brought up his first break point of the second set with Sinner serving for a two-set lead, duly pouncing on the opportunity. With the swagger back in his step at a crucial juncture, Alcaraz sought to bring the crowd into the contest but Sinner remained unflustered in the tie-break. The first five points went with serve before Sinner whipped a forehand down the line and Alcaraz then steered a drop-shot wide. A tame return into the net gave Sinner four set points. Alcaraz saved two before Sinner unleashed a blistering cross-court forehand to move to within a set of the trophy. It all looked to be going his way when he broke Alcaraz to begin the third set, but the Spaniard refused to surrender his title quietly and rattled off four games on the bounce to lead 4-1. Alcaraz lost serve at 5-3 but promptly broke to love to force a fourth set, lapping up the roars of the Court Philippe Chatrier crowd. That ended Sinner's run of 31 consecutive sets won at Grand Slams. Alcaraz saved a break point in the third game amid a series of holds as Sinner doubled down. The Italian appeared to be closing in on victory when he broke at 3-3 to approach the finish line. But Alcaraz had other ideas as he staved off three championship points at 3-5 and then broke Sinner when he tried to seal the title on his serve. Successive aces spurred a reinvigorated Alcaraz on in the tie-break and into a decisive fifth set. A despairing Sinner lost his serve right away and his gloom deepened as Alcaraz saved two break points to pull 3-1 ahead, but incredibly there was another twist. Alcaraz this time faltered with the title within his grasp as Sinner broke while trailing 5-3 to spark a three-game burst that left the Spaniard needing to hold serve to prolong the final. He kept his nerve to set up a 10-point tie-break, which Alcaraz ran away with as the outrageous shotmaking continued until the very end when he took his first championship point with a sizzling forehand. mw/nf
