Cheer On the Racquet Tier

How 20-year-old Alexandra Eala became tennis's favorite new phenom.

- EMILY BURACK

Over one week this spring, Alexandra Eala became a superstar. She defeated former Grand Slam champions Iga Swiatek, Jelena Ostapenko, and Madison Keys to make it to the semifinals of the Miami Open and made her debut in the top 100. Her rise felt meteoric, but for Eala, now 20, it was the product of a lifetime of work. “The results that I’ve been getting,” she says, “have been cooking for years.”