Alex Eala vs. Leylah Fernandez 2026 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix Round of 32 Preview

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Alex Eala vs. Leylah Fernandez 2026 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix Round of 32 Preview image

By Joel Reyes

Alex Eala will make her debut at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on Tuesday (PH time) when she takes on Leylah Fernandez in the first round of the 2026 Stuttgart Open. This will be the Quezon City native’s first match since suffering a heartbreaking Round of 16 exit at the Linz Open last week.

This will be the first singles meeting between Eala and Fernandez on the WTA Tour. They squared off once before in a doubles setting, with Eala and Janice Tjen beating Fernandez and Kristina Mladenovic at the Abu Dhabi Open last February.

Photo by Mathias Schulz/Newhouse Media/MB Media/Getty Images

Eala grabbed a direct entry to the main draw after Qinwen Zheng pulled out of the Stuttgart Open because of a lingering elbow problem. She will open her campaign against Fernandez, who has Filipino descent. The World No. 25, whose mother is Filipino-Canadian, has won five WTA titles in her career. She finished runner-up at the US Open back in 2021.

Eala, who is still searching for her first-ever WTA Tour title, is coming off a straight-sets defeat at the hands of Jelena Ostapenko in Austria. Eala had a 5-1 lead in the second set against the 2017 French Open champion before dropping six consecutive games to bow out of the WTA 500 event.

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