Alex Eala streak snapped by Belinda Bencic in Canadian Open

Alexandra Eala of the Philippines acknowledges the crowd after losing to Belinda Bencic of Switzerland during day eight of the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers at Sobeys Stadium on August 09, 2026 in Toronto, Ontario. Matthew Stockman/Getty Images/AFP

LIVE: Alex Eala vs Belinda Bencic – Canadian Open round of 16

MANILA, Philippines–The best stretch of Alex Eala’s career came to an end in the Canadian Open round of 16 on Monday (Manila time) in Toronto.

Seemingly weary after the amount of tennis she’s played dating back to her title run in Washington last week, Eala was overwhelmed by a ruthless Belinda Bencic, 4-6, 0-6, despite being cheered on by a massive Filipino crowd at Center Court at Sobeys Stadium.

READ: Alex Eala faces another big test vs Belinda Bencic at Canadian Open

Simply stunning 🌟@BelindaBencic ends the Eala run with a 6-4, 6-0 victory to power into the quarterfinals.#NBO26 pic.twitter.com/iiZIIEiFCx

— wta (@WTA) August 10, 2026

“I know most of you guys were cheering for Alex, but I still have to say it was very nice to play in front of you all. Thank you so much for the great crowd tonight,” said the 12th-seeded Bencic, who became the tournament’s youngest champion in 2015 at just 18 years old when she made her debut in the Toronto Masters.

Eala saw her career-best seven-match winning streak snapped by the Swiss star and former World No. 4, whose unpredictable service game put the Filipino ace in all sorts of trouble.

The loss spoiled what could’ve been an interesting quarterfinal matchup between Eala and fourth-ranked Coco Gauff. Eala beat Gauff, 6-2, 2-0, in the third round of Indian Wells last March after the two-time Grand Slam winner retired due to an injury.

Belinda Bencic of Switzerland is congratulated by Alexandra Eala of the Philippines after their match during day eight of the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers at Sobeys Stadium on August 09, 2026 in Toronto, Ontario. Matthew Stockman/Getty Images/AFP

While many players struggle against left-handers like Eala, Bencic flourished. The 29-year-old Bencic improved to 10-0 against lefties since 2024, a fact that left the Tokyo Olympics gold medalist in awe.

“On this day, I had to play against a left so I’m surprised by this statistic. Obviously, very tricky maybe it helped me a little bit that I played a lefty the round before against Taylor Townsend so that was a tough one and I got used to the serve a little but yeah, I mean, I wish I was a lefty too,” said Bencic, who overcame Taylor Townsend in the round of 32 on Saturday in a match that lasted more that three hours.

The 21-year-old Eala got off to a hot start after holding to love in the opening game. But that was the only time where she led as she had to play catchup the rest of the way against Bencic, who played like a well-oiled machine.

Eala managed to keep up and level in the first set at 4-4 before Bencic shifted to another gear and never letup.

Bencic broke Eala thrice in each of the two sets in a dominant display set up by her laser sharp serves.