He’s watching, always watching!
Despite retiring from the tennis tour last fall, Rafael Nadal is still keeping tabs on current events—and has been loving the performances of two of his namesake tennis academy’s students at the Miami Open.
Alexandra Eala of the Philippines and Coleman Wong of Hong Kong have turned heads in the early days of the second leg of the Sunshine Double, making history for their respective nations in the process. Both are through to the third round in national firsts, scoring big upsets along the way.
On Friday, Eala upset former Roland Garros champion and Miami’s No. 25 seed Jelena Ostapenko, becoming the first woman representing the Philippines to defeat a Top 30 player since at least 1975—the year WTA rankings were first published. The teenager, who has trained at Nadal’s academy in Mallorca since age 13, was overcome with emotions after the victory, and Nadal took notice for the implications for both the former US Open junior champion and the short history of tennis in the archipelagic nation of nearly 115 million.
“Congratulations Alex! What a great win for you and for [the Philippines],” Nadal wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
