Sunday, June 15, 2025

Gauff, Eala make successful debut as partners

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REIGNING American Open champion Coco Gauff and rising Filipina sensation Alex Eala made their successful debut as partners late Saturday night (Saturday afternoon in Spain), clobbering Russian Alexandra Panova and Hungarian Fanny Stollar 6-3, 6-1 at the start of the Italian Open women’s doubles at the Foro Italico Tennis Center in Rome, Italy.

Teaming up for the first time as a wild card in the prestigious tournament, Gauff, 21, and Eala, were dominant and in sync, needing just 59 minutes to overwhelm their rivals and book their ticket to the round-of-16 against the Italian duo Tyra Caterina Grant and Lisa Pigato today.

Both players have had success in doubles play, with Gauff having won three WTA 1000 doubles titles with compatriot Jessica Pagula and is the defending women’s doubles champion with Katerina Siniakova of Czechoslovakia.

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The pretty Pinay southpaw won the Australian Open juniors doubles title with Priska Madelyn Nugroho in 2020 and the French Open juniors doubles crown the following year with Russian Oksana Selekhmeteva.

Among the notable stats of Gauff and Eala together was the tandem’s five-of-eight conversion of break points for a 62.5 percent average and 20-of-25 points won on the first serve for a high 80 percent clip.

They also had 68.9 percent on total service points won (31/45) and a total of 56.8 percent on total return points won (25/44).

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