Iga Swiatek admits what Alexandra Eala did in their Miami Open quarter-final which took her by complete surprise

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Iga Swiatek was stunned by world number 140 Alexandra Eala in her Miami Open quarter-final.

Swiatek had impressed at the Miami Open, having not dropped a set en route to the quarter-finals of the WTA 1000 tournament.

This is where she would go head-to-head with surprising quarter-final opponent in wildcard Eala, who had beaten Madison Keys and Jelena Ostapenko in her previous matches at the tournament.

Despite being the overwhelming favorite, Eala managed to catch Swiatek by surprise with her match tactics in one of the biggest shocks of the 2025 season so far.

Iga Swiatek admits Alexandra Eala did something that left her completely surprised

Eala beat Swiatek, 6-2 7-5, to become the first Filipino in history to reach a WTA 1000 semi-final.

When speaking in her post-match press conference, world number two Swiatek admitted that Eala’s game style caught her off guard.

“For sure I did not know she was going to play that flat,” said Swiatek. “But besides that she was really aggressive and she kept her focus and some of the shots were pretty out of nowhere but still I could see that she had intentions to go for it and to push and it worked for her today, for sure.”

Although she lost to Eala in straight sets, Swiatek did lead the second set 4-2 and was asked whether she thought the match was starting to turn in her favor at that point.

“No, I wasn’t really thinking about her,” responded Swiatek. “I was just happy I started feeling a bit better but I couldn’t hold it anyway. I thought I was kind of back and feeling the game a bit better but I didn’t really think about her.”

Swiatek produced an uncharacteristic 32 unforced errors in this quarter-final defeat, while Eala hit just 12.

When did Iga Swiatek last lose to a player ranked lower than Alexandra Eala?

Swiatek losing to Eala is only the third time that she has ever been beaten by a player ranked outside the top 100 in the main draw of a WTA tournament.

The last time that she lost to a player this low was also at the Miami Open in 2021, when a 19-year-old Swiatek was beaten by world number 338 Ana Konjuh.

Karolina Muchova is the only other player ranked outside the top 100 to have beaten Swiatek in a WTA main draw at the 2019 Prague Open.

After a relatively disappointing sunshine double for Swiatek, she will now switch her attention to her favored clay courts.

Four-time Roland Garros champion Swiatek’s next tournament will be on indoor clay courts at the Stuttgart Open, where she has also won two titles.