FILIPINO tennis ace Alexandra “Alex” Eala’s campaign at the WTA 1000 Italian Open in Rome is not yet over.
Shown the singles exit doors after a 4-6, 3-6 third-round loss to Elena Rybakina Sunday night, Eala joined forces with American Hailey Baptiste in the doubles competition.
At the top of the draw’s alternate list, Eala and Baptiste replaced the duo of Elisabetta Cocciaretto and Leylah Fernandez.
The Italian-Canadian pair withdrew at the last minute.
Eala and Baptiste face the No. 2 seed Czech-American pair of Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend in the first round on Tuesday.
Siniakova and Townsend are the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked doubles players, respectively.
On the other hand, Eala is No. 88 (career-high) while Baptiste is No. 129.
Teaming up with Turkish Zeynep Sonmez, Eala faced Sinoakova and Townsend at the Madrid Open doubles round of 16 a little more than two weeks ago.
Eala and Sonmez fell to the eventual champions, 1-6, 5-7.
Meanwhile, Eala teams up with Baptiste, who defeated her at the Indian Wells doubles round of 32, 2-6, 2-6, last March.
Eala was with Iva Jovic, and Baptiste with Ostapenko.
In their singles head-to-head, world No. 42 Eala holds a 2-0 record against No. 25 Baptiste. NIEL VICTOR MASOY
