By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Monday, March 24, 2025
Photo credit: Alexandra Eala Instagram/Rafa Nadal Academy Facebook
Five–time finalist Rafael Nadal never won the Miami Open.
The Rafa Nadal Academy has emerged as a big week one winner at this Miami Open.
Filipina Fighter: Eala Shocks Keys in Miami
Nadal’s students have been busy rewriting history at Hard Rock Stadium.
Nineteen-year-old wild card Alexandra Eala and 20-year-old Coleman Wong, both long-time students of the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca, scored stunning victories over powerful American seeds.
Wild card Eala shocked Australian Open champion Madison Keys 6-4, 6-2 making history as the first Filipino woman to beat a Grand Slam champion in Open Era history at the Miami Open.
The energetic Eala is the first Filipina to defeat a Top 10 player in a seismic and historic victory for Filipino tennis. Eala joins Naomi Osaka and Zheng Qinwen as the third Asian teenager to defeat a Grand Slam champion in the past decade.
Eala, who plays with a Babolat racquet and wears Nike apparel like her tennis hero Nadal, erupted with an ecstatic “Vamos!” after scoring the biggest win of her career.
Afterward, she said that celebratory scream was a tribute to her roots.
Eala, who moved to the Academy at age 13 with her brother, Miko, said of Nadal “we’re good friends” and credited the Rafa Nadal Academy with having an “astronomical” impact on her game and career and building on the firm foundation her parents and grandparents set in the Philippines.
“The academy has been my home for the past seven years. Of course, my family should take credit for the foundation that they laid out before they sent me there,” Eal said. “But of course, the academy was able to build on that foundation in such a way that I’m able to be where I am now.
“And I think the combination of everything that I’ve been through since I started tennis is what has led to this moment and what has led to me having all these opportunities.”
World No. 182 and Hong Kong native Wong shocked 13th-seeded Bent Shelton and the pro-Shelton crowd 7-6(3), 2-6, 7-6(5) to become the lowest-ranked man to reach the Miami round of 32 in a decade.
“This is for you, Hong Kong,” Wong said after his massive upset.
There is a lot of effort behind these victories. We are very proud of you, Coleman! ☺️ A historic win for Hong Kong 👏🏻 https://t.co/3XtlJkiy0P
— Rafa Nadal (@RafaelNadal) March 22, 2025
“There is a lot of effort behind these victories. We are very proud of you, Coleman!” the Rafa Nadal Academy posted on social media. “A historic win for Hong Kong.”
Eala and Wong are good friends and strong supporters of one another. Eala said Wong inspires her play, but they are not dating, the wild card told the media in Miami.
“You know, I’m super happy for him and to see someone that I’ve known so long do so well is definitely an inspiration,” Eala said. “Not just to me, but I feel in general a lot of people can take inspiration from him.”
In addition to the brilliant break-out performances of Eala and Wong, other pros who train at the Nadal Academy have made their mark as well. No. 5-seeded Casper Ruud, who has trained with Nadal himself at the Academy, faces Francisco Cerundolo in the round of 32.
The 56th-ranked Spaniard Jaume Munar pushed Gael Monfils to a third-set tiebreaker before bowing in a pulsating 7-5, 5-7, 7-6(1) match.
It’s all happening on the eighth anniversary of Nadal’s run to the 2017 Miami Open final when the tournament was played at its former home on Key Biscayne’s Crandon Park.
Nadal knocked off Fabio Fognini 6-1, 7-5 to reach that fifth Miami Open final.
MORE: Federer Stops Nadal in Miami Open Final
In the 37th installment of the famed Roger v. Rafa rivalry, Roger Federer dissected Nadal for the fourth straight time, 6-3, 6-4, winning his first Miami Open title in 11 years and completing the Sunshine Double—capturing Indian Wells and Key Biscayne in succession—for the third time.
