Alex Eala and Zeynep Sönmez’s off-court friendship and chemistry extended onto the clay courts of Caja Mágica at Manzanares Park.
The Filipina-Turkish pair outplayed their rankings, dominating doubles specialists Chan Hao-ching of Chinese Taipei and Fanny Stollár of Hungary, 6-2, 6-2, in the opening round of the WTA 1000 Mutua Madrid Open women’s doubles on Thursday.
Eala and Sönmez had previously teamed up twice on the ITF circuit in 2023 and 2024, reaching the semifinals on both occasions.
However, their limited activity on the WTA doubles tour is reflected in their rankings—Eala at world No. 101 and Sönmez at No. 498.
That disparity did not matter on court, as they went toe-to-toe with former Wimbledon finalist and former world No. 5 Chan, alongside world No. 25 Stollár.
Chan and Stollár started strongly, breaking Eala’s serve in the second game to take a 2-0 lead in the opening set.
But Eala and Sönmez quickly turned things around, responding with three breaks of their own to win six straight games and take the set in just 31 minutes.
They carried that momentum into the second set, racing to a 4-0 lead by winning 10 consecutive games overall.
From there, both pairs held serve, allowing Eala and Sönmez to close out the match comfortably with another 6-2 set.
They now await the winner of Thursday’s second-round clash between second seeds Taylor Townsend of the United States and Kateřina Siniaková of the Czech Republic, and the pairing of Filipina-American Desirae Krawczyk and Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine.
Townsend and Siniaková are both former world No. 1s and Grand Slam champions, having won Wimbledon 2024 and the Australian Open 2025 together, while Krawczyk is a former world No. 5 and Kichenok a former world No. 3.
