Alex Eala has revealed she received a personal message from tennis icon Rafael Nadal during her historic run at the Miami Open.<\/p>\n
Nineteen-year-old Eala<\/a> was arguably the story of this year\u2019s event in Miami, with the Filipina defying her wildcard status to reach the last four.<\/p>\n Eala beat three Grand Slam champions \u2013 Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys, and Iga Swiatek \u2013 on her way to the last four, becoming the first woman from the Philippines to reach a WTA 1000 semi-final.<\/p>\n Having been ranked 140th heading into the tournament, Eala\u2019s run saw her move up to a new high of world No 75 \u2013 becoming the first woman from her country to crack the top 100.<\/p>\n Eala has long been recognised as a promising junior, having lifted the US Open girls\u2019 singles title back in 2022.<\/p>\n And her talent has been honed at the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca, where she trained for several years before graduating in 2023.<\/p>\n Nadal<\/a> publicly congratulated Eala on social media amid her ranking-defying run at the WTA 1000 event but the teen star has now revealed she also received a direct message from the Spaniard.<\/p>\n \u201cRafa messaged me,\u201d said Eala, speaking on Power and Play<\/em><\/a>. \u201cIt was the first time he ever messaged me personally so I think that was a shock to see.<\/p>\n \u201cFunny story, I only saw it like a couple of days after kasi nga punong puno yung cellphone ko [checking her phone]. It was exciting to see his notification.\u201d<\/p>\n Heading into the Miami Open, Eala had limited experience on the WTA Tour \u2013 and the 19-year-old has never played a Grand Slam main draw match.<\/p>\n However, a ranking inside the top 100 will enable her to enter more WTA-level events, and will be enough to automatically enter the main draw of the French Open next month.<\/p>\n Eala\u2019s most eye-catching win in Miami was her 6-2, 7-5 victory over reigning French Open champion Swiatek in the quarter-finals, though her third-round win over Australian Open champion Keys was even more emphatic.<\/p>\n Having then pushed world No 4 and 2024 US Open runner-up Jessica Pegula to three sets in the last four, all eyes are on what impact Eala could now make in the coming months.<\/p>\n Top 5 contenders for the Monte Carlo Masters title \u2013 ranked: ft. Alcaraz, Djokovic, Tsitsipas<\/a><\/p>\n Jenson Brooksby set for huge rankings rise after history-making Houston run<\/a><\/p>\n And, in a potential warning to the WTA field, Eala believes she has been continually \u201cimproving\u201d \u2013 and that the \u201clevel is there\u201d to keep challenging the very best.<\/p>\n She added: \u201cI think that I have been improving for a while [on] everything. A little bit my serve, a little bit of my fitness, the quality of my shots, how to build a point.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd, I think it took me a while to really mesh those things together and really make it come out during the matches. But as you can see, when I\u2019m playing well, the level is really there.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel this week is really gonna help with the trust that I have in myself and the trust that I have in my game, and when I need to go for those big points, then I believe that I have the level to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>:\u00a0The 5 men with the most Monte Carlo Masters appearances: Novak Djokovic set to surpass Rafael Nadal<\/a><\/p>\n The post Alex Eala fires \u2018improving\u2019 warning to WTA rivals as she reveals Rafael Nadal message<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alex Eala has revealed she received a personal message from tennis icon Rafael Nadal during her historic run at the Miami Open. Nineteen-year-old Eala was arguably the story of this year\u2019s event in Miami, with the Filipina defying her wildcard status to reach the last four. Eala beat three Grand Slam champions \u2013 Jelena Ostapenko, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tennis News<\/h2>\n