Eugenie Bouchard has finally showed glimpses of the form that carried her to last year’s Wimbledon final after a turgid 2015 season which has seen her lose 14 of her last 17 matches.
After reaching the Australian Open and French Open semifinals alongside her Wimbledon final in 2014, the young Canadian scooped up the WTA’s Most Improved Player award, just a year after collecting the Best Newcomer Award. Her hugely successful breakout year also saw her collect one title in Germany on the way to a career high #5, earning herself a qualification spot for the end of year tour finals in Singapore.
What a difference twelve months can make.
Eugenie Bouchard’s 2015 US Open second round 6-3 6-7 6-3 victory over Polona Hercoq is just the third time this season that Bouchard has managed to win two matches at a tournament and the first time since Indian Wells Masters back in March. Compare this with the same point twelve months ago and Bouchard had won at least two matches in 11 tournaments throughout 2014.
“Slump” almost seems to be too generous a word to accompany Bouchard’s year. She has suffered less of a slump and more of a complete physical and mental breakdown in her tennis ability. Her groundstrokes and serve have lost the power and technique that made them so effective last year and mentally she appears to be unsettled, often cutting a lost and lonely figure on court.
It has been one of the questions on the lips of most tennis fans this year. “When will Bouchard regain her form?” As the year has progressed that question has tentatively changed to “Will Bouchard regain her form?” Perhaps, and just perhaps, the US Open may be the catalyst that steers the 21-year-old back in the right direction.
Admittedly, she has not played two of the most challenging opponents so far at this years US Open. Her first round challenger, Alison Riske, is one of just nine players she had been able to beat this year and she dispatched of her with relative ease once again, 6-4 6-3.
In the second round, Bouchard found herself against another player outside the top #50 in the Slovenian Polona Hercoq. This match, completed on Wednesday, was less simple, with Hercoq claiming a second set tie-break to force a deciding set. However, perhaps to the surprise of many, Bouchard was able to come through winning the third set 6-3, mirroring the score in the first set. The aggressive and committed style of this three set victory is unquestionably a positive turning point considering this is the sort of match she has been consistently losing all year long.
The real test now comes in the third round for Bouchard as she comes up against the Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova. Like Bouchard, Cibulkova has had a tumultuous 2015, mostly down to achilles surgery which kept her out of action for most of the first half of the year. However, the 2014 Australian Open runner-up is finding a return to form at the right time after comfortably dispatching of Ana Ivanovic in the opening round.
Eugenie Bouchard has so far been lucky with her draw in Flushing Meadows. Should she win her third round encounter with Cibulkova she will play the winner of Roberta Vinci and Mariana Duque-Marino, another pair of unseeded players, giving her every chance of creating an “upset” in reaching the quarterfinals.
The fall of the seeds around her might just give her a chance of finally ending the horrific run she has been on and return Eugenie Bouchard to the very top of the women’s game, a place it is hard to argue that she does not belong. Her third round encounter against Cibulkova will be scheduled for Friday.
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