MANILA, Philippines – Clay has been unforgiving for Alex Eala. She failed to make it past the second round in each of her past seven tournaments on the surface dating back to 2024, winning just three of her 10 matches over that stretch. The 20-year-old Filipina, though, can turn her clay fortunes around in the Madrid Open in Spain scheduled from April 20 to May 3.

Based on the draw released by the WTA 1000 tournament on Monday, April 20, Eala will face a qualifier in the opening round. A victory puts her on a collision course with world No. 21 Elise Mertens of Belgium. Eala reached the fourth round in each of the three previous WTA 1000 events she took part in — Dubai Tennis Championships, Indian Wells Open, and Miami Open — but that streak will be put to the test considering that she owns a low 39.1% career-win percentage on clay, having lost 28 of her 46 matches on the surface.

Two of those losses came in 2026, with Eala falling to Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko in the second round of the Linz Open in Austria and to Canada’s Leylah Fernandez in the first round of the Stuttgart Open in Germany. While it has been a slow start to the clay court swing, Eala gets another chance in Madrid, where she aims to improve on her round of 64 stints in the last two editions. In 2025, Eala beat Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova in the round of 128 before she succumbed to Poland’s Iga Swiatek — the 2024 champion — in the round of 64. Eala currently sits at No. 44 in the WTA rankings, improving one spot from a week prior. – Rappler.com