Bouchard eliminated from Cincy tournament

MASON, OHIO— Canadian Eugenie Bouchard fell 6-7 (6), 5-7 to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina on Wednesday in second round action at the Western & Southern Open. The Westmount, Que., native jumped to a 2-0 lead before falling behind and dropping the first set.

The 21-year-old Bouchard had two double faults and one ace. No.14 seed Svitolina managed three aces on her serve.

The match took just over one hour 41minutes. The start of their evening match was delayed by more than two hours on a day at the Cincinnati-area tournament that saw several breaks due to rainstorms.

Bouchard was coming off a firstround win on Tuesday against Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko. The Canadian was trying to rebound after a first-round loss to Swiss teen Belinda Bencic at the Rogers Cup in Toronto last week.

Earlier Wednesday, defending Cincinnati champion Serena Williams won her opening match, a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Tsvetana Pironkova.

Williams is using this week’s tournament as a final tuneup for the U.S. Open in New York, where she’ll be the focus as she tries to complete a rare Grand Slam sweep.

For Williams, her play this week is about getting her game ready to take a swing at history.

“I think it could be a lot better,” she said.

“It’s not where I would want it ideally, but, you know, I’m going to have to fix that more mentally than anything. I think once I lock in there I will be OK.”

On the men’s side, Novak Djokovic also won in straight sets, beating Benoit Paire 7-6, 5-2.

Djokovic needs a win at Cincinnati to become the first player with titles at all nine ATP Masters events.