Alex Eala, Zeynep Sonmez advance to Round of 16 of Madrid Open doubles

Alexandra “Alex” Eala of the Philippines and partner Zeynep Sonmez of Turkey advanced in the WTA1000 Madrid Open women’s doubles tournament after defeating the pair of Chan Hao-Chang of Chinese Taipei and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-2, 6-2, in the Round of 32 on Thursday in Spain.

The duo, who are now through to the Round of 16, bucked a slow start in which they surrendered the first two games of the first set, before coming back to take the first set 6-2.

They continued to cruise in the second set, jumping out to a 4-0 lead before trading points with their opponents to close it out, 6-2.

Eala entered the doubles event fresh off a 6-3, 6-3 win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the Round of 128 of the singles draw.

Like Eala, Sonmez is also thrpugh to the Round of 64 of the singles competition after a 7-5, 6-2 win over Carlota Martinez Cirez.

They are currently still awaiting who their opponents will be in the Round of 16.

—JMB, GMA News