Less than a month after her stunning run at the Miami Open, Alex Eala is set to return to WTA 1000 action at the Madrid Open.<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old competed at the WTA 125 tournament in Oeiras last week but action in Madrid will represent her first WTA-level event since her breakout run to the semi-final in Miami.<\/p>\n
Eala<\/a> beat Grand Slam winners Jelena Ostapenko and Madison Keys on her way to the last eight, where she stunned five-time major champion and world No 2 Iga Swiatek<\/a> to reach the semi-final.<\/p>\n Victory over Swiatek ensured that the Filipina would crack the top 100 of the WTA Rankings for the very first time, and she is currently at a career-high of world No 72.<\/p>\n And, she could well face off against the Pole in Madrid, with Swiatek waiting in the second round if she can start her campaign with a victory over Viktoriya Tomova.<\/p>\n Eala was not ranked high enough to reach the Madrid main draw directly when the entry cutoff was made, though the teen star benefited from a wildcard.<\/p>\n Here, we look at her special connection to the tournament and why it has been such a significant event.<\/p>\n Eala\u2019s connection to the Madrid Open is through IMG, her management group.<\/p>\n IMG not only manages players such as Eala but also owns a handful of key tournaments, one of them being the Madrid Open \u2013 a combined WTA and ATP 1000 event.<\/p>\n That means that several IMG-managed players often receive wildcards into both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s singles draw, just as they do at the Miami Open \u2013 also run by the group.<\/p>\n Eala, ranked 140th at the time, was a wildcard into the Miami Open main draw this year, just as she was in 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n Among the other IMG players to receive a wildcard into Madrid this year are men\u2019s singles star Coleman Wong, a longtime friend of Eala\u2019s.<\/p>\n This will be Eala\u2019s third straight year competing in Madrid, having received wildcards in both 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n The Filipina was heavily beaten on her tournament debut back in 2023, falling 6-1, 6-1 to former Wimbledon semi-finalist Tatjana Maria.<\/p>\n However, Eala bounced back to claim her first-ever WTA 1000 match win in the Spanish capital a year ago, rallying to defeat Lesia Tsurenko 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in round one.<\/p>\n She was ultimately beaten by 27th seed Sorana Cirstea in the second round, though she showed plenty of promise in a 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-4 defeat.<\/p>\n Who is Emma Raducanu\u2019s Madrid Open Round 1 opponent? Dutch star Suzan Lamens<\/a><\/p>\n WTA Madrid Open draw: Swiatek could face Eala & Ostapenko, Sabalenka\u2019s kind draw, Raducanu top half<\/a><\/p>\n Eala faces an intriguing opening test against Bulgarian star Tomova, an encounter that both women will probably feel is winnable.<\/p>\n World No 64 Tomova is just eight places above Eala in the WTA Rankings but the 30-year-old is vastly more experienced, with this set to be her 18th appearance in the main draw of a WTA 1000 event.<\/p>\n The Bulgarian has a career-high ranking of world No 46 set in July last year, and, while she has never reached a WTA final, she did win the Chicago Challenger back in 2023.<\/p>\n This is set to be the first meeting between the two, with Swiatek awaiting the winner.<\/p>\n Read Next<\/strong>:\u00a0Iga Swiatek facing her biggest crisis, Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s injury nightmare and Holger Rune\u2019s second coming \u2013 Tennis365\u2019s Heroes and Villains<\/a><\/p>\n The post Revealed: Alex Eala\u2019s special Madrid Open connection ahead of Round 1 clash<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Less than a month after her stunning run at the Miami Open, Alex Eala is set to return to WTA 1000 action at the Madrid Open. The 19-year-old competed at the WTA 125 tournament in Oeiras last week but action in Madrid will represent her first WTA-level event since her breakout run to the semi-final […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Madrid Open connection<\/h4>\n
Madrid history<\/h4>\n
Madrid Open News<\/h2>\n
Who is her Round 1 opponent?<\/h4>\n