Alex Eala, Coco Gauff bow out in Italian Open doubles quarterfinals

MANILA, Philippines — Alex Eala and Coco Gauff kissed their Italian Open doubles marketing campaign good-bye after falling to the protecting champions within the quarterfinals.

First-time companions Gauff and Eala couldn’t capitalize on their first-set lead as Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini escaped with a  5-7, 6-3, 7-10 win on Thursday (Manila time) in Rome.

READ: No slowing down Alex Eala’s ascent in spite of early exits

The duo used to be some degree clear of profitable the hole set with a 5-3 lead and 40-0 merit within the 9th recreation, however Errani and Paolini gained 4 consecutive video games to scouse borrow the set as a substitute.

Eala and Gauff bounced again and ruled the second one set to pressure a decider, however the protecting champions displayed grace underneath power and prevailed towards the Filipino-American duo within the 3rd to advance to the semifinal after an exhilarating one-hour and 36-minute duel.

Tennis – Italian Open – Foro Italico, Rome, Italy – May 7, 2025 Philippines’ Alexandra Eala in motion throughout her spherical of 128 fit towards Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk REUTERS/Aleksandra Szmigiel

Despite the quarterfinal go out, the 19-year-old Eala discovered a brand new pal within the World No.3 participant Gauff. Their partnership used to be successful on social media, with a number of lovers sharing their concepts for the title in their duo throughout their Italian Open run.

READ: Alex Eala, Coco Gauff off to smashing get started in Italian Open doubles

Gauff, who previous within the day complex to the singles semifinals, mentioned Eala had messaged her on social media and requested to companions within the doubles event.

“She [Eala] slid in my DMs and asked me to play. And I was like, Sure. Why not? “We really didn’t know each other, honestly, before in Madrid, I said hi to her for the first time,” Gauff mentioned in an previous interview.

“So I was just hoping she would be nice, and you know, and obviously she’s such a nice person. And obviously she’s a killer in doubles, two junior slams and probably future ones too. I’m super happy to play with her.”

Eala and Gauff were given off to a sweeping get started, defeating Fanny Stollar of Hungary and Alexandra Panova of Russia, 6-3, 6-1, of their first recreation in combination within the Round of 32. They additionally ruled house bets Tyra Grant and Lisa Pigato, 6-2, 6-3 within the spherical of 16.

Gauff will compete within the WTA 1000 Internazionali BNL d’Italia singles semifinals towards Zheng Qinweng after outlasting Mirra Andreeva, 6-4, 7-6(5).

Eala, who dropped her opening fit in Rome, in the meantime, shall be moving her center of attention to her ladies’s Grand Slam major draw debut at French Open which opens on May 25.