Quote of the Day: Alexandra Eala slid into Coco Gauff’s DMs to pitch Rome doubles

ROME, Italy—Coco Gauff and Alexandra Eala made headlines earlier this week when the two talented singles players revealed they had teamed up for a doubles stint at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

Though Eala, at 19, is just two years younger than 21-year-old Gauff, the duo only just met this spring, Gauff already a Grand Slam champion and singles and doubles while Eala is in the midst of a winning transition from the junior circuit.

Gauff recalled how their Rome partnership came to be after reaching the fourth round in singles on Sunday:

Q. How did your doubles partnership with Alexandra Eala come together, and what has that experience been like?

COCO GAUFF: She DM’d me on Instagram. She slid in my DMs and asked me to play. I was like, “Sure, why not?” We really didn’t know each other, honestly, before Madrid. I said hi to her for the first time in Madrid or maybe Miami, we may have briefly said hello. I figured she would be nice so I was just hoping she would be, you know?

Obviously, she’s such a nice person. When there’s people finally my age on tour, I’m glad to interact. For me, it was a good opportunity to play doubles but also have a relaxed vibe with another player. I’m super happy to play with her, and obviously she’s a killer in doubles: two junior Slams and probably some future ones too.

Q. Alex has had so much attention on her the last couple of weeks. How much does that sort of remind you of what you went through when you joined the tour?

COCO GAUFF: She seems to be handling it super well. There’s ups and downs in the sport, but you realize that the media is there to kind of paint that story and make it more interesting, but that shouldn’t be added pressure or anything like that.

She seems chill. She seems like she’s working hard, so I don’t have any advice for her just because she seems relaxed. The only thing I did tell her was that doubles helped me a lot in that space, having some time on court where it’s a little less stressful. So, I encouraged her to play when she could.

Gauff was impressed by Eala’s gumption, and the two have turned out to be a formidable team, winning their first round over Fanny Stollar and Alexandra Panova, 6-1, 6-3.

They’ll next face the all-Italian team of Tyra Grant and Lisa Pigato later this week.