In a hard-fought match, Eugenie Bouchard lost in three sets 6-2, 6-7(4) and 6-4 to Veronika Kudermetova in the second round of the tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico on Monday.
The Canadian athlete can only blame herself. She beat her opponent, the 19th best player in the WTA rankings, six times, including four times in the first round.
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Bouchard won the second set in a tiebreak but returned to her troubles in the deciding set. Kudermetova had eight aces in the entire game, while the Montreal native only had two.
The Quebecer only won 56% of points on first serve. Her competitor showed significantly better results at this level with a success rate of 68%.
This setback is Bouchard’s 15th in a row against a member of the top 20. You have to go back to the round of 16 of the 2017 Madrid tournament to see the 29-year-old pull off such a feat of weaponry. She then defeated Angelique Kerber 6:3 and 5:0, with the latter having to retire in the second set.
On Sunday evening, Bouchard dominated her match against crowd favorite and 181st ranked female batter in the world, Renata Zarazua. She needed just 1 hour 29 minutes to win 6-1, 7-6(4). Unlike her last opponent against Kudermetova, Bouchard won 74% of her points on her first serve.
Defeats for Fung and Zhao
Stacey Fung and Carol Zhao’s tournaments also ended Monday. The former lost 3:6, 6:2 and 0:6 against the Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk (42nd). Zhao lost 6-4, 6-3 to 53rd-ranked American Sofia Kenin in just 1 hour and 23 minutes.
Fung made life difficult for Kostyuk, especially in the second round. However, she had a terrible final set, winning only 33% of her first serve points.
As for Zhao, she only broke her opponent once in the entire match.