As she began her campaign at the Miami Open, Alexandra Eala had played eight top-50 players, and beaten only one.
But that has all changed since the teenager caught fire on the aquamarine-coloured hard courts at Hard Rock Stadium this fortnight.
Eala, who hails from the Philippines, beat Grand Slam champions Jelena Ostapenko and Madison Keys back-to-back to reach the fourth round at the WTA 1000 tournament.
Her next opponent, Paula Badosa, then withdrew because of a back injury, sending the 19-year-old into the quarterfinals where she will face five-time major champion Iga Swiatek.
Suddenly, Eala finds herself on the cusp of the top 100 and delivering on the almighty promise she showed throughout her stellar junior career.
“I don't think I've had the time to process everything that's happened,” Eala said after her stunning 6-4 6-2 win over Keys, the reigning Australian Open champion.
“It's a big thing to take in, and I feel it's important for me to take it in step by step. I'm so super proud of what I was able to accomplish, but it definitely fuels me more.
“I know and it's in my mind that I have a next match, but I need to stop, and I need to recognise that what I did today was really amazing.
“I think my reaction on court, you know, sums up pretty much how I feel about it.”
Until Miami, Eala had never won consecutive matches at tour level.
In her WTA main-draw debut, back in 2021 at age 16 when she was ranked outside the top 600, she upset Paula Ormaechea to reach the second round in Cluj-Napoca. Her only other main-draw win came last year in Madrid, when she beat world No.41 Lesia Tsurenko.
But away from the spotlight, she had been making steady, encouraging progress.
By the end of 2022 she’d improved her ranking to the brink of the top 200, and last year made her top-150 debut after winning the W100 title in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain – the biggest of five career ITF titles.
Throughout 2023 and 2024 she qualified for the main draw at six WTA tournaments, and although she is yet to play in the main draw of a Grand Slam event, she reached the final round of qualifying at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open last year.
The US Open was where Eala broke through to win the junior girls’ singles title in 2022, after girls’ doubles victories at Australian Open 2020 and Roland Garros in 2021.
Her doubles triumph at Melbourne Park came at just 14 years of age, not long after she’d relocated from the Philippines to the Rafael Nadal Academy in Mallorca, where she continues to train and maintain a base today.
Every milestone she achieves – whether her junior successes or today in the professional ranks – sets a new mark for Philippines tennis.
She is the only player from her country to win a junior Grand Slam singles title, and after peaking at world No.134 earlier this year, she is the highest-ranked Filipino player in WTA history.
Eala has risen to No.102 in the live rankings after beating Ostapenko – her first top-30 win – and world No.5 Keys, wins making her the first player from the Philippines in the Open era to beat a major champion at a WTA tournament.
She hopes her presence on tour has an impact on young fans in her home country.
“I want the kids at home to see more my attitude and more the grit I have on court more than the results that I get,” said Eala, who is yet to drop a set in Miami.
“But of course, there have been so many role models in my life. You know, inspiration doesn't always have to come from someone big who did it in the Philippines.
“For example, the young kids, the youth in the Philippines, they don't need to take inspiration from me. They can take inspiration from anyone they want. You know, they can take inspiration from other things, which is what I did growing up.”