Filipino star Alexandra Eala and Indonesia's Janice Tjen had a rough day at the Madrid Open as both suffered identical 6-2, 6-1 defeats on Friday.
Elise Mertens, seeded 19th, eased past Eala in straight sets to advance to the third round, where she will next face former world No1 Karolina Pliskova.
Mertens broke early in Eala’s first service game. She added another break in the seventh game and then took the opening set.
Mertens broke Eala twice at the start the second set and had a third break in the seventh game to complete victory in one hour and 16 minutes.
Mertens thus completed her second win in as many matches against Eala, 20, and also improved to 13-7 in singles this season.
For the Philippines star, it was another tough result in what has been a difficult season. She lost in the opening round of the Australian Open but reached the quarter-finals of the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open and Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
She reached the round of 16 in Miami and Indian Wells.
In Madrid, Eala defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets in the opening round.
Eala will now be seen in action in doubles where she has advanced to the round of 16 alongside Zeynep Sonmez.
Indonesia's Tjen, meanwhile, also saw her Madrid singles campaign come to a halt with a 6-2, 6-1 defeat.
Liudmila Samsonova defeated Tjen in just 69 minutes to reach the third round.
Tjen, 23, had earlier overpowered Alina Charaeva in the straight sets in the opening round.
Tjen will shift her focus to doubles where she reached the round of 16 with Aldila Sutjiadi.
