Bouchard bounced from Rogers Cup

TORONTO Eugenie Bouchard said she was lacking confidence after being bounced from the Rogers Cup in the first round on Tuesday.

And though she offered up a fairly simple fix to that problem - “win matches” - that’s been easier said than done for Canada’s top women’s singles player lately. Her latest setback, a straight-sets loss to 21-yearold qualifier Donna Vekic of Croatia, helped underscore that.

Bouchard fell 6-3, 6-4 in the afternoon tilt on the Aviva Centre’s centre court. Vekic, playing in her main draw debut at the Rogers Cup, broke the Westmount, Que., native six times and won 17-of-27 firstserve points.

“I think I just made too many unforced errors, you know. I’m obviously a bit low in confidence right now,” Bouchard said. “It’s tough to get through tough matches when you’re in a moment like that.”

Bouchard, who has dropped down the rankings from a career-high No. 5 in 2014 to her current spot at No. 70, started Tuesday’s match on the wrong foot. She was broken four times in the first set, including the deciding game - a 10-minute long affair that saw the opponents hit deuce six times. She also had 19 unforced errors to Vekic’s 10.

Mississauga, Ont., teenager Bianca Andreescu, coming off a quarter-final run at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C., last week, lost 6-4, 6-1 to 55thranked Timea Babos of Hungary in her Rogers Cup main-draw debut.