However, the Filipina quickly responded, breaking the Siegemund serve early in the second set, establishing a 2-1 lead.

Midway through Eala’s second service game of the second set, the Filipina voiced her frustrations regarding Siegemund’s conduct.

Alex Eala complains about Laura Siegemund’s ‘delaying’ at the Miami Open

After Eala mis-tossed a serve at 6-7, 2-1, 30-15, Siegemund turned around and retreated to the back of the court, before appearing to issue a complaint to the umpire.

The umpire responded: “She’s going to be spoken [to]. Talk to me. She’s going to be told. Same as you, she’s going to be spoken

“She still had six seconds left when she mis-tossed. I’m going to talk to her, no problem”

Eala then approached the umpire’s chair, before issuing her own complaint about Siegemund.

“Can you watch her time, because many times she’s delaying,” Eala said.

“The time has been watched and she knows,” the umpire responded. “And you as well, you need to be careful of the clock.

Eala said: “I was about to serve.”

“Yes, you had six seconds left, that’s what I explained to her, but both of you need to have a look at the clock” the umpire responded.

“Yeah but she stopped the point. I was about to serve and she turned around.”

The umpire replied: “I know, I understand, that’s fine.”

Eala said: “Just wanted you to know, this time I was about to serve.”

The umpire said: “I know I know. It’s okay, no problem.”

Siegemund was then heard to say: “It’s not about the time, it’s about the focus.”

Eala went on to win the match 6-7, 6-3, 6-3.

Both Alex Eala and Laura Siegemund were going over the shot-clock limit during the match

At 4-3 to Eala in the second set, the Tennis Channel broadcast a statistic demonstrating how often both Eala and Siegemund were going over the 25-second shot clock between service points.

Eala had done so 57 per cent of the time, while Siegemund had breached the shot-clock limit on 85 per cent of service points at that stage in the match.

Siegemund is well-known for taking her time between points, as demonstrated by Coco Gauff’s complaint about the German’s conduct at the 2023 US Open.

To the delight of all players at the Miami Open, the main-draw stage of the tournament has finally started after a washout on Wednesday.

However, if any more rain lands in Miami, organisers may need to consider extending the event.