Who is Alex Eala’s next opponent at the Madrid Open? Filipina faces world 21 and doubles Grand Slam winner
Alex Eala can expect a tough second-round encounter at the Madrid Open as she will face 19th seed Elise Mertens for a place in the last 32 in the Spanish capital.
The 20-year-old Eala secured a comfortable 6-3, 6-3 win over qualifier and 2021 French Open runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in her opener while Mertens had a bye into the second round as she is one of the seeded players.
The pair will now face each other for a second time at WTA Tour level with their first-ever career meeting taking place back in 2023.
Who Is Elise Mertens
Mertens was born on 17 November 1995 in Leuven, Belgium, to Liliane Barbe and Guido Mertens. She has an older sister named Lauren and it was her sibling who introduced her to tennis at the age of four.
The young Elise idolised former world No 1s and fellow Belgians Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters and ended up training at the Kim Clijsters Academy from 2015 until 2022.
Elise turned professional in 2013 and three years later she tasted title success in the doubles at the Auckland Open.
Her first singles title arrived at the 2017 Hobart International and the following year she enjoyed arguably her best singles season on the WTA Tour as she reached the semi-final of the Australian Open – her best Grand Slam performance – and won three WTA Tour 250 titles, helping her to peak at No 12 in the WTA Rankings.
WTA News
Alex Eala eyeing a significant rankings breakthrough as she makes progress on clay
Andy Roddick says Elena Rybakina is ‘coming for Aryna Sabalenka’s No 1 ‘throne’ in WTA Rankings
The following year, she won her first Grand Slam doubles title as she lifted the US Open trophy alongside Aryna Sabalenka and two years later they won the Australian Open.
Later in 2021, she partnered Hsieh Su-wei and they won Wimbledon while in 2023 she won a second title at Melbourne and the following year she was again crowned doubles champion at the All England Club.
Her most recent doubles Grand Slam trophy came at the 2026 Australian Open alongside Zhang Shuai.
Besides six major titles, she has also won two WTA Finals and seven WTA 1000 trophies. In terms of her singles career, Mertens has won 10 titles with the last trophy coming on the grass at the Libema Open last June.
WTA Rankings And Prize Money
Mertens currently sits at No 1 in the doubles ranking while she is ranked No 21 in the singles, having peaked at No 19 this year.
The 30-year-old has earned $1,200,190 in prize money so far in 2026 with the bulk of that coming from doubles while her career tally sits at $18,995,153.
Previous Mertens-Eala Meeting
They faced each other in the first round of the 2023 Jasmin Open in Tunisia with the then-18-year-old Eala qualifying to reach the main draw.
Mertens was the defending champion and seeded second and won the match 7-5, 6-0 before going on to successfully defend her crown.
When Is The Madrid Open Match?
The encounter is set for Friday 24 April and it will be the second match of the day on Court 5, meaning it won’t get underway before 12:30 local time.
