Filipino rising star Ella reached the semi-finals of the 2025 Miami Tournament, writing the most magical fairy tale in the history of tennis

The world No. 2 Swiatek knocked out the world No. 2 in straight sets, and the world's No. 140 Filipino star Ella reached the quarterfinals of the 2025 Miami Tennis Championships, writing the most magical fairy tale in the history of tennis.

Ella was thrilled after her victory over Swiatek, and her journey in Miami was magical

Prior to this, Ella had never beaten a top-40 player in the world or played against a top-20 player. However, the 19-year-old made a name for herself at the Miami Tennis Championships, beating World No. 92 Katie of the United States in the first round and then beating World No. 10 and former Latvian French Open champion Ostapenko in the second round.

Ella continued her explosive run in the round of 32 to remove hosts from the United States' new Australian Open champion and fifth seed Keisla. In the round of 16, Ella was injured by Spain's No. 10 seed Badosa and advanced without a fight. Coming to the top 8, the refreshed Ella defeated Polish star Swiatek 6-2, 7-5 and reached the semi-finals of her first WTA tournament in her career, creating a new history of tennis in the Philippines. Moreover, Ella won in straight sets on the way to the promotion, showing the courage of the invincible.

Wild card entered the tournament but knocked out 3 Grand Slam champions. Ella also became only the second woman in history to win at least three Grand Slam winners with a wild card in a single event. Another person to do so was Svitolina, who defeated Williams, Kenin, Azarenka and Swiatek at Wimbledon 2023.

Ella has beaten at least three Grand Slam winners in Miami, and she has swept away all of them on her way to qualifying, showing that she is in relentless form

Ella also equalled the best record for a wildcard player in Miami history, after Henin (2010) and Azarenka (2018) also reached the semi-finals with wild cards, both former world No.1s who returned to action after a long break. In contrast, Ella's promotion was more magical.

With her excellent record in Miami, Ella will become the first Filipino woman to reach the top 100 in the world rankings next week, making her exclaim "too unreal". "It doesn't feel real," Ella said. After the victory over Swiatek, Ella covered her face with her hands and gave her an incredulous expression, saying, "I can't believe it, I'm like I'm on the clouds right now." Ella, who graduated from Nadal's tennis academy two years ago, was photographed with Nadal and yesterday's opponent Swiatek, and seeing the photo made her call it unreal: "It feels like I'm still the same person in the picture, but of course things have changed." I'm very happy and honored to be able to play against such an opponent and on such a stage. ”

The Miami Women's Open is a 1,000-level tournament with huge prize money, with Ella already assured of $332,160 in prize money after reaching the Women's Singles semi-finals, and $1,124,380 if she does win.

Ella graduated from the Nadal Tennis Academy two years ago and took a photo with Nadal (left) and Swiatek (right), which she now calls too unreal.

With Pegula's victory over Raducanu, Ella will next face fourth-seeded Pegula of the United States in her bid to reach her first WTA final. Pegula defeated British beauty Raducanu 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-2 in the quarterfinals. In the other two women's singles quarterfinals, world No. 1 Sabalenka defeated China's Zheng Qinwen 6-2, 7-5 to win six consecutive matches. Italy's Paulini defeated Poland's Linnet 6-3, 6-2.