A gloomy Monday morning in Manila got a little gloomier.
Alex Eala ended he stirring run at the National Bank Open in the Round of 16, where the 21-year-old Filipina fell to former champion and World No. 14 Belinda Bencic, 6-4, 6-0, in Toronto.
The defeat snapped Eala’s seven-match winning streak, dating back to her remarkable run in Washington, but it hardly erased what she accomplished in Canada. Eala leaves Toronto with 120 ranking points and nearly USD82,000 in prize money, along with another sizeable deposit in something harder to quantify: belief.
The scoreline was brutal. The journey was anything but.
Eala, seeded No. 25, walked onto the court with her heavily bandaged right ankle, a precaution after she landed awkwardly during her three-set victory over Caty McNally on Saturday. Bencic, seeded No. 12, was hardly fresh herself, carrying a heavily taped hamstring after a marathon match that lasted more than three hours.
If both players were carrying bruises, Bencic carried the bigger toolbox.
The Swiss, 29, quickly showed why. A former world No. 4, Olympic singles champion, and Canadian Open winner, Bencic repeatedly used her forehand to stretch Eala from corner to corner, turning the court into a geometry lesson.
Eala refused to make it easy.
The first set became a tug-of-war, with both players exchanging breaks. Eala twice erased Bencic’s advantage, including at 4-4, when a Bencic double fault helped put the Filipina at level.
But Bencic broke again, then served out the set.
The second set was where the fairy tale finally ran out of pages.
Bencic broke immediately and kept pressing, finding the corners with unnerving precision. Eala tried changing the script, moving forward and seeking points at the net, but Bencic had answers for nearly everything.
The reward for Bencic is a quarterfinal against Coco Gauff, another stern test in a tournament where the Swiss has already shown that experience still travels well.
The bigger prize for Eala may be what remains after the scoreboard fades. Seven straight wins, a deep run in her debut at Toronto, 120 ranking points, and a sizable prize are tangible gains.
But so is the realization that she can belong here.
The streak is over. Her climb is most definitely not.
