New Genie delights Auckland
Eugenie Bouchard showed a touch of class as she beat Madison Brengle 6-3 6-3 on Centre Court at the ASB Classic yesterday.
The former world No 5, whose career has been in a slump for the past few years, was occasionally erratic, but there were also some delightful moments from her where she showed the talent that made her one of the most talked about players in the world in 2014.
Brengle didn’t look in the same league as Bouchard, but she was a tricky opponent, getting lots of shots back and taking the pace off the ball and forcing the Canadian into do-or-die shots.
Brengle’s serve was incredibly weak and it allowed Bouchard to jump on it for every point, but that can put pressure on the returns.
While Bouchard did make errors, her aggressive game meant she hit plenty of winners too.
The first set had some entertaining moments where Bouchard was scrambling all over the court to stay in points.
But whenever Bouchard had the opportunity, she’d stretch Brengle on her backhand side then hit a deep, hard ball to her opponent’s forehand that she had no chance getting back.
Earlier, Olympic champion Monica Puig defeated Bethanie Mattek-Sands to also advance to the second round.
The Puerto Rican, who won the gold medal at the Rio Games in 2016, won 6-3 6-2 in a match in which there was always a sense of inevitability in the outcome.
The match lasted just under an hour and a quarter and the excitement levels never really got that high.
Mattek-Sands was given a wildcard into the tournament and while she helped give it plenty of publicity, she made little impression with her tennis.
The 33-year-old Mattek-Sands, who is ranked 350 in the world, hadn’t won a match since May.
Puig, eight years her junior and ranked 53, looked sharper and fitter around the court and showed she could be up for an extended run in Auckland.
Puig won a scrappy first set, picking up plenty of points by either overpowering or stretching her veteran opponent
With Puig up 1-0 in the second set light rain began to fall, but it only kept the players off court for 10 minutes.
At the resumption MattekSands was able to hold serve and win one more game, but in the end Puig ran away with it.
Also, the 2017 Classic champion Lauren Davis, who was also given a wildcard, beat Lara Arruabarrena 6-2 6-2 on the Grandstand Court.
Meanwhile, the schedule for Tuesday has been released with the blockbuster match between Victoria Azarenka and Venus Williams scheduled to be the last match on centre court.
Play begins with the match between No 5 seed Barbora Strycova and Taylor Townsend, followed by the clash between defending champion Julia Goerges and Johanna Larsson.
Top seed Caroline Wozniacki won’t play her first match until tomorrow. The world No 3 was delayed by a day in getting to New Zealand because of a cancelled flight from Florida caused by a thunderstorm. With the Classic this year moving to a Sunday final, there is an extra day in the schedule.