Alex Eala, Coco Gauff off to smashing start in Italian Open doubles
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FILE–The Philippines’ Alexandra Eala returns the ball to Poland’s Iga Swiatek during their 2025 WTA Tour Madrid Open tennis tournament second round singles match at the Caja Magica in Madrid, on April 24, 2025. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP)
MANILA, Philippines — After an early exit in the Italian Open women’s singles tournament, Alex Eala proved to be a good doubles partner to World No. 3 Coco Gauff of United States.
The duo of Eala and Gauff was off to a rousing start after trouncing Fanny Stollar of Hungary and Alexandra Panova of Russia, 6-3, 6-1, in the Round of 32 on Saturday evening (Manila time) in Rome.
READ: Alex Eala out in singles, joins Coco Gauff for Italian Open doubles
The Filipino and American tandem broke a 2-2 tie in the first set, cruising past Stollar and Panova to win four of the last five games to draw first blood.
The 19-year-old Eala and Gauff dropped the opening game of the second set but they were quick to get their act together, winning six straight games — with a dominant showing in the last two — to advance to the next round.
Eala, who recently had a Cinderella run in the Miami Open beating three Grand Slam champions, is teaming up with Gauff, a 2023 US Open Champion and Italian Open titlist in the same year, for the first time.
READ: Alex Eala continues rise in ranks ahead of Italian Open
The Rafa Nadal Academy product is the first Filipino to win Grand Slam girls titles after ruling the US Open 2022 and a two-time junior doubles champion in the 2020 Australian Open and 2021 French Open.
The World No.70 Eala crashed out in the WTA 1000 Internazionali BNL d’Italia singles after getting dominated by Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine, 6-0, 6-1, last Thursday.
The Filipino tennis sensation is also bracing for her women’s Grand Slam main draw debut in the Roland Garros starting on May 25.
