Nadal shouts out academy product Eala on Miami breakthrough

Rafael Nadal has been keeping tabs on the performance of his tennis academy’s alumna, Alexandra Eala, during her WTA 1000 breakthrough at the Miami Open.

Miami: Scores | Draws | Order of play

Eala, 19, has made history this week for both herself and her home nation this week at Hard Rock Stadium with a pair of victories, marking a milestone for Filipinos in tennis. Given a wild card to the main draw, the World No. 140 defeated American Katie Volynets in the first round before topping No. 25 seed Jelena Ostapenko, 7-6(2), 7-5.

The win against Ostapenko made Eala the first woman representing the Philippines to defeat a Top 30 player since the beginning of the PIF WTA Rankings in 1975. She is the only player, male or female, from the Philippines to hold a world ranking in pro tennis.

And as Eala’s worked her way through the tournament’s first week, Nadal, her idol who retried from tennis last year, is cheering the teen on from afar.

After her win over Ostapenko, Nadal celebrated Eala’s latest breakthrough with a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“Congratulations Alex! What a great win for you and for [the Philippines],” Nadal wrote.

The left-hander, who, also like Nadal, plays with Babolat racquets, has said that moving to Mallorca to train at the former world No. 1’s namesake academy when she was 13 was transformative for her. When she again made history by winning the junior US Open three years ago, Eala’s star power at home (the Philippines has a population of nearly 115 million) exploded: She boasts more than 126,000 Instagram followers already, and has landed on magazine covers like Tater and Vogue regionally.

Amidst growing fame, Eala has said lessons she’s learned from Nadal have helped her stay focused on improving her game.

“He is so grounded and he has achieved more than anything I could dream of,” she once told Philippine broadcast network GMA, “and the fact that he is still so nice to everyone around here is very admirable from him.”

Eala next faces Australian Open champion Madison Keys in the third round on Sunday.