Alex Eala completed a hat trick of wins over her friend and former doubles partner Zeynep Sonmez as the Filipina tennis ace launched her campaign at the WTA Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open with a commanding 6-4, 6-3 victory over the Turkish number one on Monday (Tuesday morning, Philippine time) in the United Arab Emirates.
The Zayed Sports City International Tennis Centre was full to the rafters for the final match of the day on Stadium Court, as two players with some of the tour’s most loyal and vocal followings faced off.
Filipino fans, however, made up the clear majority in the crowd.
Eala entered the contest holding a 2-0 head-to-head edge over Sonmez, having prevailed 7-6(5), 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the 2023 ITF W60 Engie Open Nantes Atlantique in France. She then repeated with a 6-1, 6-3 win in the qualifiers of the 2025 WTA 250 Lexus Eastbourne Open.
That trend continued in the opening stop of the WTA Tour’s three-week Middle East swing.
In a clash between two players who both reached career-high world rankings this week, world No. 45 Eala struck first, breaking serve early to seize a 3-1 lead in the opening set.
World No. 79 Sonmez — fresh from a breakthrough third-round run at the Australian Open that included a win over world No. 11 Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia — responded by breaking Eala in the fifth game to level the set at 3-3.
Eala regrouped and surged to a 5-3 advantage but was unable to close out the set on her serve in the ninth. That allowed Sonmez to narrow the gap to 5-4.
Undeterred, Eala broke Sonmez for the third time in the set in the following game to secure the opener, 6-4.
The Filipina star then tightened her grip on the match in the second set, racing to a 3-0 lead.
Sonmez clawed her way back to 3-2, but Eala refused to let the set slip. She won three of the next four games to seal the victory in one hour and 31 minutes.
Steady from the baseline throughout, Eala consistently punished Sonmez’s serve, converting six breaks in nine service games.
The 20-year-old Eala advances to the second round to face Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus, who stunned eighth seed and former world No. 2 Paula Badosa of Spain on Monday.
The 31-year-old Sasnovich entered the main draw as a lucky loser after Spain’s Jéssica Bouzas Maneiro withdrew from the tournament.
Eala returns to action on Tuesday in the doubles event, where she and Indonesian standout Janice Tjen will take on French Open doubles finalist Leylah Fernandez of Canada and six-time Grand Slam champion Kristina Mladenovic of France.
