Alex Eala: Why Filipina star faces rankings pressure for the first time in her career in Miami
Alex Eala described her 2025 Miami Open run as “the highlight of my career so far” and 12 months later she will be hoping for more of the same as she has a lot of points to defend.
The Filipina was relatively unheard of before the WTA 1000 event in Florida a year ago, as she was ranked No 140 in the world, but she pulled off upset win after upset win to reach the last four.
Then aged 19, Eala earned a wildcard into the main draw and defeated Katie Volynets, 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko and 2025 Australian Open champion Madison Keys to reach the fourth round before Paula Badosa withdrew from their round of 16 clash.
In the quarter-final, she came up against world No 2 Iga Swiatek and stunned the then five-time Grand Slam winner 6-2, 7-5 to reach the semi-final before losing against Jessica Pegula.
She recently told The Sit-Down podcast: “I think that [Miami run] has to be the highlight of my career so far. That’s what put me on the map. Everything clicked after that. I look back at that moment, and I just think, wow, it was insane.
“It’s crazy to believe that actually happened.”
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That “crazy” result helped her to rocket to No 75 as she became the first Filipina to crack the top 100, but not long after she reached the top 50, then the top 40.
Nearly a year after that historic achievement, Eala sits at No 29 in the WTA Rankings with 1,525 points, but she will be under pressure at the Miami Open this coming week as she has to defend her points from 12 months ago.
The WTA uses a rolling 52-week, cumulative system for the rankings and players have to defend points from their 18 best tournaments or the corresponding period 12 months ago.
In Eala’s case, she is defending 390 points from the Miami Open.
If you deduct those 390 points from her current total she will be on 1,135, but is guaranteed to earn at least 10 points for her entry, so will effectively be on 1,145.
As a result, she has dropped 20 spots in the Live Rankings as she currently sits at No 49.
But the good news is she can make her way back up by earning points for every round win.
As one of the seeded players, Eala has a bye into the second round and she will face either Laura Siegemund or Petra Marcinko in her opener and a win will give her 65 points, which will result in a boost in the rankings.
