A marathon fortnight catches up: weary Eala bows out to Bencic in Toronto

Two weeks of relentless, emotional tennis finally caught up with Alexandra Eala. Fresh from her title run in Washington and back-to-back three-setters in Toronto, the 21-year-old ran out of legs against a ruthless Belinda Bencic, beaten 6-4, 6-0 as the second set slipped away in a bagel.

10 August 2026

Bencic – Eala, Toronto 2026 | © Keito Newman/The Canadian Press via AP/MSIPA

Cédric Rouquette

National Bank Open presented by Rogers •Round of 16 • Completed

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A. EalavsB. Bencic

Alexandra Eala’s extraordinary run finally ran out of road – and, it seemed, out of legs. Two weeks of relentless, emotional tennis caught up with the 21-year-old on Monday night as Belinda Bencic overpowered her 6-4, 6-0 to reach the quarter-finals of the National Bank Open presented by Rogers in Toronto.

The workload had been immense. Eala arrived in Canada straight from a title-winning week in Washington, a campaign that included a rain-delayed final spread over two days, and then ground through back-to-back three-setters against Alycia Parks and Caty McNally, the latter a late-night epic.

By the time she ran into the in-form Bencic, an eight-match winning streak and a stack of gruelling battles were written into her legs. The competitive opening set gave way to a second-set bagel, the 2015 champion timing the ball superbly and pulling away as Eala’s tank emptied.

Clinical Bencic

Bencic was clinical, winning 62% of the points and converting six of her 10 break points to book a fourth career quarter-final in Canada, where she now meets world No 4 Coco Gauff. Aware of the crowd’s loyalties, she was gracious afterwards: “I know most of you were cheering for Alex, but it was very nice for me to play in front of you all. Thank you so much for the great crowd.”

Eala, for her part, refused to let tiredness sour a fortnight that lifted her to a new career-high of world No 20. “Tough one today, she put me in some really tough situations,” she said. “But overall, a really good week. I’m super happy with the run I’ve had, and I’m going to try to recover and come back out hot.”

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She admitted the toll: “There’s that initial feeling of being a little tired and down after the match.” But her overriding emotion was gratitude. “I’m healthy, which is on top of my priorities all the time. I’m counting my blessings and taking the lessons from these two weeks.”

She also soaked up the connection with the fans who packed the stadium every night. “It’s hard to describe the feeling of being in that stadium full of love. It’s been an amazing debut – I’ll carry these memories for a long time.”