Alex Eala arrives in Sao Paulo carrying the momentum she has built through 2025. The 20-year-old, fresh from a historic WTA 125 Guadalajara title that returned her inside the top 65, extended her winning streak to six with a commanding 6-0, 6-2 victory over qualifier Yasmine Mansouri at the SP Open. Eala is seeded third in the field and now faces a step up in difficulty in round two.

Her opponent will be world No 188 Julia Riera, who impressed in round one with a straight-sets win over Vitalia Diatchenko. Riera reached a career-high ranking of No 93 in May 2024 and has Grand Slam experience after coming through qualifying to make her main-draw debut at Roland Garros in 2024, where she lost in round one. She qualified again in 2025 and forced Elena Rybakina to three sets. Riera also made her Wimbledon debut in 2024 and her Australian Open debut in 2025 but has never progressed into the US Open main draw.

Riera has collected seven ITF Tour titles and enters Sao Paulo with an 18-17 record for 2025. Her best result this year was a semi-final run at the WTA 250 Copa Colsanitas in Bogota in April, though she had been on a three-match losing streak before beating Diatchenko earlier this week.

This will be the third meeting between Eala and Riera, with their head-to-head locked at one win apiece. Riera beat Eala in three sets in the third round of French Open qualifying in 2024, and Eala returned the favour with a straight-sets win in Cary later that season. Sao Paulo will host their first hard-court meeting.

If Eala advances she would likely meet Janice Tjen or Marina Okal’ova in the quarter-finals; Tjen notably qualified at the US Open and upset Veronika Kudermetova in New York, and in Sao Paulo she defeated seventh seed Leolia Jeanjean in round one. A semi-final clash could pit Eala against second seed Solana Sierra, while a potential final opponent is top seed Beatriz Haddad Maia, the former world No 10. Riera represents a clearer test than Mansouri, but Eala remains the favourite to progress.

Alex Eala extended her unbeaten run to six matches with a commanding start at the SP Open, following a breakthrough weekend at the Guadalajara 125. The 20-year-old carried momentum from her maiden WTA singles title into the top-tier event, beating Yasmine Mansouri 6-0, 6-2 in 76 minutes.

Eala broke Mansouri three times in the opening set and twice in the second to secure a decisive victory. The win arrived with Eala seeded third in the draw and earned her a two-spot climb in the Live Rankings, moving from No 61 to No 59. She has previously peaked at No 56 in the WTA Rankings.

“This is my first time in Brazil and my first time in South America, actually, so I’m so happy to see that the crowd is so lively,” Eala said after the match. “I didn’t expect so many people to come out and watch me play. I guess I was a bit lucky to be sandwiched in between two great Brazilians, so I’m just happy to be here and to be able to play well.”

Tuesday at Parque Villa-Lobos also belonged to the top seed Beatriz Hadda Maia, who delighted home fans with a 6-1, 6-1 win over qualifier Miriana Tona. The SP Open is making its debut on the WTA Tour and is the first top-level women’s tournament in Brazil since 2016.

Eala can still improve her ranking further this week. A victory over Julia Riera in the second round would lift her to No 55; Riera, currently No 188 in the Official WTA Rankings, reached the round of 32 by defeating Vitalia Diatchenko in straight sets. Projections in the draw suggest Eala could face Janice Tjen in the quarter-final and, if results follow seedings, second seed Solana Sierra in the semi-final.

A run to the final or a title would produce larger jumps, with a championship potentially moving Eala as high as No 42. A Rafa Nadal Academy graduate, Eala reached the Miami Open semi-final earlier this season, made her Grand Slam debut at Roland Garros and recorded her first major match win at the US Open after first-round exits at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

Alex Eala arrives in Sao Paulo on the back of a breakthrough month and will open her SP Open campaign as the third seed at the WTA 250 event. The 20-year-old has enjoyed a rapid rise: she became the first Filipino in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam singles match when she stunned 14th seed Clara Tauson at the US Open just over two weeks ago, and she followed that landmark with the biggest title of her career at the WTA 125 Guadalajara Open. Eala climbed 14 places in the WTA Rankings after Guadalajara and arrives in Brazil among the highest-ranked players in the draw.

Her first opponent is qualifier Yasmine Mansouri. The 24-year-old Frenchwoman has spent most of her career on the ITF circuit and has claimed five W15-level singles titles, four of those victories coming in Monastir, plus five further ITF finals. Mansouri reached a career-high of world No 314 in February 2025 and is currently ranked 380th, carrying a 25-24 win-loss record for the season to date. She has reached three ITF semi-finals in 2025 and entered the Sao Paulo main draw after a second-round finish to Linda Fruhvirtova in Leiria.

Mansouri made her WTA Tour debut at the 2022 Jasmine Open in Monastir with a wildcard into the main draw, where she lost in straight sets to Magdalena Frech. At the Sao Paulo qualifying event she was seeded fourth, defeating home wildcard Ana Cruz 6-3, 6-2, then beating Thaisa Grana Pedretti 6-2, 6-4 to secure her place in the main draw.

This will be the first meeting between Eala and Mansouri; they are separated by 319 places in the WTA Rankings. The opening-round match is scheduled for Tuesday, with the winner set to face either Julia Riera or Vitalia Diatchenko in the next round.