Alex Eala has kicked off her Madrid Open campaign with a solid win over former French Open runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
After being seeded at her two most recent WTA 1000 events at the Indian Wells Open and Miami Open, Eala’s drop down the WTA Rankings resulted in her losing her seeding protection as she started the tournament at No 44.
It meant there was no bye into the second round, but Eala was unperturbed as she was in peak form against Pavlyuchenkova, who has slumped to No 116 following a difficult couple of years.
After saving a couple of break points in game two, the Filipino broke to love in game five and then claimed a second break in game nine to take the opener.
The 20-year-old again took the early advantage in the second set as she broke the world No 11’s serve in game four only to lose her own serve in the next game, but she got a second break in game six and then served it out for a 6-3, 6-3 win 90 minutes on Estadio Arantxa Sanchez.
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The win is Eala’s first in three matches as she was beaten in the round of 16 of the Linz Open by Jelena Ostapenko and then lost her opener against Leylah Fernandez at last week’s Stuttgart Open.
Up next is 19th seed Elise Mertens, who had a bye to the second round.
In terms of the other seeds in the bracket, the winner of the Eala-Mertens match is projected to meet 33rd seed Maria Sakkari in the third round while 27th seed Cristina Bucsa and 34th seed Magdalena Frech are favourites to reach the fourth round.
WTA Rankings Update
Eala reached a career-high No 29 in the WTA Rankings in mid-March, but her failure to replicate her Miami Open semi-final from 2025 resulted in her dropping down the list.
But she is now closing in on a return to the top 40 as she has moved up three places in the Live Rankings to No 41 as she earned 35 points for winning her opener.
And there is an even bigger rankings boost waving at her as she could move up a few more spots if she reaches the third round by beating Mertens.
Eala has now reached the second round of the Madrid Open for three consecutive years as last year she defeated Viktoriya Tomova in her opener before losing against second seed Iga Swiatek while in 2024 she defeated Lesia Tsurenko before Sorana Cirstea ended her run.
The post Alex Eala +3 in WTA Rankings with excellent Madrid Open win appeared first on Tennis365.
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