ROME, Italy — Apart from the prestige of the singles competitions against the world’s best in the ongoing 2026 Italian Open, Filipina rising star Alexandra ‘Alex’ Eala
Eala is also set to take part in the women’s doubles event where she has confirmed her participation.
“Yes. Well, I signed up (laughing),” Eala disclosed in a media briefing following her victory over gritty Polish rival Magdalena Fręch whom she outplayed, 6-0, 3-6, 6-4, in a grueling duel at the prestigious Pietrangeli Court of the Foro Italico in the Italian capital.
The country’s pride signed up with American ace Hailey Baptiste, who has a career record in doubles at 74-61 and is currently ranked in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA)’s listing as world’ s number 129 (as of April 20, 2026).
So far, the soon-to-be 21 Filipina (this coming May 23) has participated in doubles events on five occasions this year.
In January, Eala and fellow youngster Iva Jovic of the United States reached the WTA 250 ASB Classic semi-finals before losing to the Chinese tandem Xu Yifan and Yang Zhaoxuan.
Two weeks later, she partnered with Brazilian Ingrid Gamarra Martins but were unfortunately knocked out of the Australian Open in the first round by Magda Linette of Poland and Aoyama Shuko of Japan, 6-7(3), 6-2, 3-6.
In February, Eala teamed up with Indonesian player Janice Tjen but they were defeated in the last four by fourth seeds Tereza Mihalíková of the Slovak Republic and Olivia Nicholls of Great Britain.
Then in March, she again entered the doubles, pairing once again with Jovic in Indian Wells. The pair failed to emulate their run in New Zealand, losing in the first round to Baptiste and Latvian Jelena Ostapenko.
Eala’s most recent doubles outing was staged in Madrid where she teamed up with Turkish right-handed ace Zeynep Sonmez to reach only the second round of the tournament.