Philippine wildcard Eala stuns Swiatek to reach Miami semis, Zverev out

Philippine wildcard Alexandra Eala pulled off the biggest win of her young career with a stunning 6-2 7-5 upset of Polish world number two Iga Swiatek on Wednesday to extend her dream run at the Miami Open into the semi-finals.

The big-hitting 19-year-old showed no signs of being intimidated playing against one of her idols and was instead a picture of poise as she dismantled Swiatek's serve early on to grab control of the match and never looked back.

"I don't know what to say, I mean, complete just disbelief right now and I am on cloud nine," Eala said in her on-court interview. "It's forever in my heart."

Swiatek, who was playing the match with added security after being verbally abused by a spectator at the weekend, failed to hold serve throughout the first set while Eala was swinging freely as she unleashed winners from all over the court.

Five-times Grand Slam champion Swiatek hit a staggering 19 unforced errors in the opening set and then received some advice from her coach before briefly leaving the court.

In the second set, Eala managed to overturn a 4-2 deficit and then held her nerve while Swiatek tried to serve out the set at 5-4 before ultimately closing it out with her eighth break of the match.

The victory over Swiatek marked the third Grand Slam winner Eala has knocked out of the women's draw after earlier wins over Australian Open champion Madison Keys and 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko.

Up next will be the winner of the day's other quarter-final between American fourth seed Jessica Pegula and 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu.

FILS STOPS ZVEREV

On the men's side top seed Alexander Zverev was upset by Arthur Fils 3-6 6-3 6-4 as the rising Frenchman made the quarter-finals of a Masters 1000 tournament for the second straight occasion after doing so at Indian Wells earlier this month.

The towering German crushed an ace to capture the first set but the 17th-seeded Fils turned the tables in the second, securing an early break and smacking a cross-court winner to level the contest.

Zverev broke for a 3-1 lead in the decider but then began to struggle with his accuracy as his normally trusty backhand failed him at critical moments while his opponent began to feed off the energy of the crowd.

Fils, 20, confidently served out the match to set up a quarter-final showdown with 19-year-old Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic.

"In the third set I thought it was over almost, 3-1, he's serving great," Fils said after the match, which had been postponed a day due to rain. "But I said don't get mad, just try to play as much as you can, try to fight and if you make a break, it's nice. And it happened."

Grigor Dimitrov saved a match point to beat Argentine Francisco Cerundolo 6-7(6) 6-4 7-6(3) in a bruising, two-hour and 47-minute quarter-final on a hot night under the lights.

Cerundolo erased seven set points and converted on his first opportunity to take the opener before the 14th-seeded Bulgarian rode an early break in the second set to level the match. Cerundolo had a golden opportunity on match point while leading 6-5 in the third but could not put Dimitrov's soft second serve into play. In the deciding tiebreak, Dimitrov hit a spectacular forehand winner on the opening point and ended up down on the court with an apparent ankle injury. But the 33-year-old toughed it out, doubling over in exhaustion after Cerundolo's forehand went wide to end the match.

Next up for Dimitrov is a semi-final against either 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic or American Sebastian Korda, who play later on Wednesday.