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Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Eala, Gauff advance to Round of 16 of Italian Open doubles

Eala, Gauff advance to Round of 16 of Italian Open doubles

Published May 10, 2025 09:57 pm

At A Glance

  • Alex Eala and American Coco Gauff immediately showed on-court chemistry after dispatching their rivals to jumpstart their women's doubles campaign at the 2025 Italian Open on Saturday, May 10.

Alex Eala and American Coco Gauff immediately showed on-court chemistry after dispatching their rivals to jumpstart their women’s doubles campaign at the 2025 Italian Open on Saturday, May 10.

The unseeded Eala and Gauff hardly flexed their muscles and overpowered Russian Alexandra Panova and Hungarian Fanny Stollar, 6-1, 6-1, to advance to the Round of 16 in this Women’s Tennis Association (WTA1000) event that is rated just one rung below the Grand Slams.

So cohesive were Eala and Gauff that they dictated the pace throughout the match and never wavered despite the persistent attempts of Panova and Stollar.

Eala and Gauff took an early 2-0 lead before Panova and Stollar answered back and claimed the next two games to even the score at 2-all.

But the Filipina-American duo was unfazed and became more aggressive to win the next three games for 5-2. They briefly faltered in the eighth game but came back to clinch the first set.

Eala and Gauff were even more lethal in the second frame as they held their serve throughout en route to the match win.

With the victory, Eala and Gauff arranged their next meeting against the dangerous wildcard hometown bets Lisa Pigato and Tyra Grant, who stunned seventh seed Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan and Russian Irina Khromacheva, 2-6, 6-4, 10-5.

Another triumph would set up Eala and Gauff in an interesting quarterfinal showdown as the other pairing has third seed Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini going up against Leylah Fernandez, a Canadian with Filipino descent, and Yulina Putintseva.

But before that, they have Pigato and Grant in mind.

Like Eala, the 21-year-old Pigato was a former junior standout, having won the 2020 French Open Junior Doubles title with fellow Italian Eleonora Alvisi. So far, she has eight International Tennis Federation (ITF) doubles titles.

Grant, meanwhile, is a 17-year-old junior standout with three Grand Slam Junior titles.

Eala’s doubles win with Gauff came two days after the 19-year-old Filipina tennis sensation bowed out in the first round of her singles match against Marta Kostyuk, 6-0, 6-1.

This is the first time that Eala and Gauff are partnering in the doubles, with the American boasting of being a former No. 1 doubles player in 2022. In fact, Gauff won last year’s French Open doubles title with Czech partner Katerina Siniakova.

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