In a meeting between two of the brightest young talents on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, qualifier Tereza Valentova defeated Alexandra Eala for the second time in six months to reach the Qatar TotalEnergies Open second round. The 18-year-old Czech set up an intriguing encounter with compatriot Karolina Muchova, the No. 14 seed, next.

Doha: Scores | Draws | Order of play

Eala, 20, has captured the media’s attention since her breakout run to the Miami semifinals last March — not only for her on-court success but her trailblazing impact as the first Filipina to reach the Top 50 and her ability to attract immense fan energy from her country’s diaspora. But while the 18-year-old Valentova’s rise hasn’t garnered a similar amount of recognition, that’s not because it’s lacked promise.

This time last year, Valentova was ranked No. 188, competing in an ITF event in Porto and had yet to contest a tour-level match. But she made her first WTA final in just her fourth main draw, in Osaka last September — routing Eala 6-1, 6-2 in the first round — and started off 2026 by cracking the Top 50 off the back of an Australian Open third-round run. Doha is still just the eighth tour-level main draw of her career.

Her rematch with Eala wasn’t as straightforward as their Osaka meeting. A tight first set saw momentum swing back and forth — Valentova started strong to take a 2-0 lead before Eala hit back with a four-game run to reach 4-2; a pair of return winners enabled Valentova to break back, and it was ultimately decided by a tiebreak.

Even then, the set was on a knife edge. Valentova made the first and boldest move up to net, carving away a volley to lead 4-3. But Eala, showing her customary fighting spirit, managed to level at 6-6 from triple set point down, having found clean winners on two of them.

Valentova didn’t flinch, but responded in kind. She fired a return winner of her own to edge ahead again, and converted her fourth set point as Eala netted a return. Once that set was in the bag, Valentova began to play with more freedom in the second set, cutting down her errors and showing greater variety in her game. Having delivered superior firepower throughout, she finished with a tally of 22 winners to Eala’s 12.

As has been the case throughout Eala’s rise, the crowd were fervently in her corner. Valentova, however, was unbothered. Her origin story involves facing down hostile Roland Garros fans in her first ever tour-level match and coming out on top, defeating Frenchwoman Chloe Paquet 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the first round last year. Valentova referenced that experience in her on-court interview.

“I think I’ve played in front of bigger crowds, at French Open,” she said. “So I know how this is working … [This] was a really challenging match, I was really prepared for it, I was just enjoying every moment here.”