MANILA -- Things have fallen into place for Filipina tennis star Alex Eala during her campaign in the 2025 Miami Open, wherein she has beaten a pair of Grand Slam champions en route to the quarterfinals.
This, according to her coach Joan Bosch from the Rafa Nadal Academy, who expressed his happiness with Eala's progress ahead of her highly-anticipated showdown with world No. 2 Iga Swiatek in the last eight.
"She does many, many good things. That's why she could be this week like the 70th in the world, 25th, and then number 5 in the world," said Bosch.
"You cannot beat these kinds of players only doing one good thing, no? She's doing many good things. She's, first of all, with good confidence, so she's happy with her game," he added.
Eala had received a wild card to the tournament and fired a warning when she stunned former French Open champion and world No. 25 Jelena Ostapenko in the second round. She followed it up with an even bigger upset, taking down reigning Australian Open champion and world No. 5 Madison Keys in the third round.
READ: Eala advances to Miami Open q'finals after Paula Badosa pulls out
READ: Alex Eala pulls off another stunner, ousts Madison Keys in Miami
The 19-year-old Eala received a walkover to the finals when her opponent in the last 16, Paula Badosa of Spain, withdrew due to a back injury.
Bosch said Eala is "enjoying the court" in Miami, where she has received great support from the Filipino community.
"She feels the crowd, she feels the possibilities, and she believes she can win. This is also important. Then she feels the ball well, she's hitting super well, and she's moving very well this week. Physically, she feels super good. The environment and everything have contributed to this week’s success. But you know, tennis is like that—some days you cannot win, and some days you beat very good players," he said.
The vastly improved footwork, speed, and agility of Eala have been the product of hard work with Alex and the Nadal Academy coaches.
"Many people are telling me that she looks like lighter [with] more intensity on the legs. So she's running better. And yes, well, this is something we've been working on, especially last year. I think we didn't do as much precision work with the fitness coaches at the Rafa Nadal Academy before," he said.
"But we tried to focus on that. And she wanted to do it," Bosch emphasized. "We started slow, doing some runs... But she was consistent, and she's still working. We still have a lot of work to do on that, but it's true that she started running more than last year."
Ahead of her match against Swiatek at 1:00 a.m. (Manila time), Bosch underscored Eala's mental fortitude as a key to competing against the five-time Grand Slam champion.
"The good thing with Alex is that she is super smart and she understands, she listens, she believes," he said. "If you wanna beat these girls you need to believe."