Elise Mertens took the opening set 6-3 against Alex Eala in their Bad Homburg Open round of 32 match after coming from a break down. The Belgian moved ahead on Monday as Eala made her debut in Bad Homburg after returning to world No. 30 in the WTA rankings.
Bad Homburg Open opener
The first set turned after Mertens erased the break deficit and closed it out 6-3. That left Eala trailing early in a match that had already drawn extra weight because of her rise back into the top 30.
Eala arrived in Germany after a strong run in Berlin. She reached the semifinals of the WTA 500 Berlin Open, beat Elena Rybakina and Elina Svitolina along the way, and then lost to Linda Noskova in 69 minutes.
Eala's ranking rise
Her ranking moved to world No. 30, one spot shy of matching the career-high No. 29 she reached last March. That made the meeting with Mertens a step up in stakes for a 21-year-old who had just added more top-level wins to her profile.
Mertens brought her own pedigree into the matchup as a former world No. 12 from Belgium. The round of 32 meeting at the Spielbank Bad Homburg Centre Court put that experience against Eala's recent momentum, and the opening set followed that script before the match moved on.
Spielbank Bad Homburg Centre Court
The setup now is simple: Eala has already shown she can beat higher-ranked opponents, but Mertens answered first in Bad Homburg by recovering from the break and taking control of the opening set. The match will be decided by whether Eala can turn the same kind of pressure back on her opponent from here.
