It took Alexandra Eala and superstar partner Coco Gauff a total of 59 minutes to get past 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.
This allowed Eala and Gauff to advance to the women’s doubles second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia’s Tennis Tournament, also known as the 2025 Italian Open.
Eala, making her doubles debut at the WTA 1000 level with Gauff, got out of 2-all deadlock with Stollar and Panova, and took the next three match points for a 5-3 edge in the first set.
Eala’s doubles triumph with Gauff, comes after she made an early exit in the women’s singles tournament, following an 0-6, 1-6, loss to Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk.
Hours earlier, Gauff won her first meeting with 18-year-old Canadian qualifier Victoria Mboko, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, in her women’s singles encounter.
The pair scored on two aces, and made 20 points out of 25 first serves.
After conceding the opening game of the second set, Eala and Gauff quickly turned the tables around on Stollar and Panova, and won six straight games.
The 21-year old Gauff is a six-year tour veteran with a Grand Slam title to her name, which is the 2024 French Open doubles.
Defending champions Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini, playing on home soil eased out Jiang Xinyu and Wu Fang-Hsien, 6-3, 6-4, in other matches.
Top seed Canadian pair Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski prevailed over Romanian Monica Niculescu and Polish teammate Katarzyna Piter, 6-4, 6-1.