Bouchard advances
Canadian drawcard eases past American opponent in a win also popular with ASB Classic tennis fans
Eugenie Bouchard is on the march. It’s only one match but yesterday’s first-round win was important for her — and the tournament. Bouchard is one of the biggest names in the field and a standout, with defending champion Julia Goerges and fifth seed Barbora Strycova, in an otherwise shallow bottom half of the draw and her progress will ensure headlines.
And the Canadian is on the comeback trail, with a new coach, and couldn’t afford a poor start to the 2019 season.
She had some difficult moments but was generally dominant easing to a 6-3, 6-3 over journeywoman American Madison Brengle in a match that took 71 minutes.
“It was okay,” said Bouchard. “I was very nervous. It’s the first match of the year, so you never know what to expect from your level. I’m happy I managed to handle my nerves.
“I liked that when things didn’t go so well, I managed to turn it around relatively quickly. Maybe a game or two went by but that was it, then I was able to get back to playing my game.”
The former Wimbledon finalist has endured a difficult couple of years, and for a period in 2018 slipped out of the top 150. But she showed some promising signs in the second half of last year, and passed her first test yesterday.
Brengle is a trickier proposition than she appears, as she tends to frustrate opponents and wait for errors. That was her recipe in her biggest win to date, when she shocked Serena Williams at the 2017 ASB Classic.
On that occasion, Brengle just stayed in the fight, while Williams gradually unravelled, making a mountain of mistakes. At times, it looked possible Bouchard might fall into the same trap as she struggled to find her range.
Brengle constantly took the pace off the ball and there haven’t been so many sliced forehands seen at Stanley Street since the days of Miloslav Mecir and Ramesh Krishnan in the 1980s.
“You really have to create the power and the points, because she is getting a lot back and making you work for it. It was tough,”
Bouchard said. “Sometimes it is hard when there is so little pace.”
It meant that the Canadian couldn’t get into any rhythm. But her determination to be proactive and take control of the point was obvious, even if sometimes she appeared to be trying too hard.
“Always trying to find that balance,” said Bouchard. “My coach was telling me I wasn’t quite being aggressive enough or finishing the point. She was getting a lot of balls back with some tricky slices.” While Bouchard’s celebrity persona accompanies her wherever she plays, she seems focused on a positive start here in Auckland, and passed up any end-of-year celebrations last night.
“I actually forgot it was New Years Eve,” said Bouchard. “People were like ‘Happy New Year’ and I was like ‘what?’ . . . because I was so focused on the tournament.
“This is not a holiday, I am working this week, so definitely not doing anything exciting [last night].”
In other matches, Monica Puig, who started a tennis revolution in Puerto Rico with her 2016 Olympic gold, was far too good for American wildcard Bethanie Mattek-Sands, with a convincing 6-3, 6-2 win in 74 minutes.
Other first-round winners included 2017 champion Lauren Davis, Sara Sorribes Tormo and Viktoria Kuzmova.
In the doubles, Julia Goerges and Timea Babos beat the New Zealand-Chilean combination of Erin Routliffe and Alexa Guarachi 4-6, 6-1, 10-3. Kiwi Paige Hourigan and American partner Taylor Townsend beat the New Zealand combination of Valentina Ivanov and Elys Ventura 6-1, 7-5 in their doubles match.