Hailey Baptiste and Alexandra Eala team up for Italian Open doubles

Despite both being defeated in singles, Hailey Baptiste and Alexandra Eala have officially be entered into the Italian Open doubles draw.

The duo, who were listed as an alternate team for the tournament, take the place of Leylah Fernandez and Elisabetta Cocciaretto. It is unclear what prompted their withdrawal and why it was not publicized. However, we do know that Fernandez has signed up to play in this week’s packed WTA 125 Trophee Clarins Challenger event in Paris along with Madison Keys, Maya Joint, McCartney Kessler, defending champion Katie Boulter, and Emma Navarro.

Fernandez and Cocciaretto were slated to play the second seeded team and Mutua Madrid Open champions Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend. Now the task of stopping 2026’s hottest women’s doubles duo will be up to Baptiste and Eala.

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Baptiste and Eala have never played together

Both players have enjoyed singles successes by defeating top ranked players. Baptiste‘s big win came last week in Madrid over Aryna Sabalenka. Eala had a miracle run at the 2025 Miami Open where she defeated Madison Keys, Jelena Ostapenko, and Iga Swiatek.

Eala played last year’s Italian Open with Coco Gauff and has recently played doubles with Zeynep Sonmetz.

Baptiste played doubles last summer with American tennis legend Venus Williams at Baptiste’s home tournament, the Mubadala Citi Open.

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Another interesting Italian Open WTA doubles team

The Baptiste and Eala is the latest addition to a group of fascinating women’s doubles teams at this year’s Italian Open.

McCoco, also known as Caty McNally and Coco Gauff, are in the draw as well as Jessica Pegula and Storm Hunter.

Another new team, Iva Jovic and last year’s Mutua Madrid Open doubles champion Anna Kalinskaya (partnered with Sorana Cirstea in 2025) could be fun to watch.

Watch the Italian Open on Tennis Channel through May 17.