The wild race of Alexandra Eala in Miami ends in the loss of semifinals against Jessica Peguula

Miami Gardens, Fla.-Lascia that this is not one-off.

Let Alexandra Eala’s mental race to this Miami Open is not something crazy and ridiculous, but something real.

Because even when he lost Thursday evening in the semifinal to Jessica Peguula, who somehow passed the nineteen year old from the Philippines, 7-6 (3) 5-7, 6-3, here is what Eala was during this tournament.

“I am so tired, so tired,” said Pegula, that he made his first final in Miami after having made the half seeds in the last two years. He will play Aryna Sabalenka, n. 1 world, in a revenge of the US Open final last September.

Eala almost pulled out yet another disturbance of another difficult to upset on Thursday at the Hard Rock Stadium, forcing Pegula, the world n. 4, to dig deep and run away from the holes all night before overturning Eala, a Wild Card ranked 140th in the world.

Eala was in command in the first set and the second before giving Peguula just enough to snatch the first and almost the second, just to make him back back. This pushed the game to a three -set duel and pungent that Peguula finally prevailed when Eala hit a last right on the net.

Again in service 🥊

Alex Eala pauses in the second!#Miamiopen pic.twitter.com/gzyfqilksp

– Tennis Channel (@tennishannel) March 28, 2025

He arrived a day after Eala beat Iga Swiatek, a five -time winner of the Grand Slam and the dominant player of the last three years. Three days came after beating Madison Keys, the Australian Open champion, who followed his beat by Jelena Ostapeko, the 2017 Open French champion.

Eala’s triumphs scored another series of milestones on the journey of the young woman who left her family in the Philippines at the age of 13 and moved to Spain to live, train and attend the school at the Rafael Nadal Academy in Majorca. Since then he has made the history of tennis for his country, starting from his victory of the title Junior US Open three years ago.

Since then, Eala has been in a constant climb but deliberated through the rankings. He finished his first full season at 205 and his second at 158.

Her coach, Joan Bosch, who has known her since he moved to the Nadal Academy and worked with her individually in the last two years, said in an interview on Thursday the goal of this year is to end up among the first 100.

“I expected me to do it, but not as in March,” Bosch said.

The sudden success of Eala-Als this month, was losing in the second round of a third-level tournament in Celine Naef in Slovakia-is almost impossible to explain. It is not as if he suddenly learned to blow up his service or adopt a new playing style.

Eala arrived in Miami and something clicks. Every high -level professional experiences him at some point in their career. None of them can explain exactly why it happens.

“Tennis is an emotional sport,” Bosch said. “Look at the draw. There are many first 10 players who lost when they did not have to. On the other hand, last month we lost against the players who perhaps, by ranking, you say that we should not have lost. In tennis, we know that this happens. We know that we can do good games. We know that we can do the not good parts, but what happened this week is incredible.”

It really was. Match after match, Eala was an almost impossible puzzle to solve.

He punishes the opponents for the first missing services, entering and crushing their second balls of three feet inside the base line. Bosch said before each game to prepare to run, and he did it, often taking off for the point where he knew that Peguula would hit. His low plates did not bounce from the hard fields as much as they browsed them.

Then there were the falls of fall, the gusts of unity, the complicated slice and for Mancini.

All this has developed over time and joined as it has never been before this week.

But there are other qualities that Bosch said that Eala has had since he was a girl.

“He has very good eyes,” Bosch said, who previously trained the number 1 in the world Carlos Moyá and has been close to Nadal since he was 14 years old. “Think quickly. It’s aggressive. It’s very aggressive.”

Bosch stopped for a moment because he wants to make sure he can pass this point. After all, aggressive does not simply mean oscillating strong. In Eala, it also means taking its position and fighting with everything that must maintain it.

“He doesn’t lose the field,” he said. “Play near, on the line.”

The combination has almost landed Eala in the finals of a tournament just below the level of a Grand Slam during a stretch of a week that changed its career trajectory.

He was supposed to go to Spain to play a series of lower level tournaments next week. Now comes something else, a series of larger tournaments for which Eala will qualify and a level to support – and perhaps, with a little luck, health and good luck, something real.

(Photo: images of Geoff Burke / Image)