Despite defeat, Eugenie Bouchard takes positives away from US Open

Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal and Sloane Stephens advance at the Open:

NEW YORK—With a 6-4, 6-3 loss to Marketa Vondrousova on Thursday, Eugenie Bouchard’s US Open bid ended in the second round. But for the 134th-ranked qualifier—and former Grand Slam finalist—we, like Bouchard, shouldn’t let this defeat her tournament.

“I think I’ll have to take a lot of positives from the past couple weeks,” Bouchard said on Thursday. “Although I’m very disappointed with today. I’ve been playing matches, and that’s what I feel like I need.”

In New York, Bouchard won three rounds of qualifying and her first main-draw match over wild card Harmony Tan, dropping just 11 total games. She pulled the same four-match win streak at Wimbledon last month.

Before that, Bouchard’s year had been defined by defeat. She was 6-8 going into the grass-court Slam, where she was a finalist just four years ago. In 2017, she finished 13-21, including a five-match losing streak to close out the year.

The Canadian hasn’t been the same since breaking through in 2014, when, in addition to her Wimbledon runner-up finish, she reached the semifinals of the Australian and French Opens. But it seems that after three years of struggles, Bouchard is slowly rediscovering her game.

“On the court, I really didn’t feel like myself,” she said today. “That’s very disappointing, considering how good I felt in my last couple matches.”

In her previous four matches, Genie looked like the Bouchard from ’14. Standing on top of the baseline, she was sharp off both wings and confidently closed out points at every opportunity. Against Vondrousova, she was the opposite and never settled in.

When asked what she would change if she could play the Czech again, Bouchard said, “Move my feet more. Take it early. That’s my game. No matter what kind of opponent I face, I still feel like I need to do that.”

One big change that may have helped the 24-year-old start building winning streaks instead of losing ones is working with Robert Lansdorp. The legendary coach has worked with other big hitters—Lindsay Davenport and Maria Sharapova, to name two—and said at Wimbledon that he just wants to see Bouchard play her best game again, and to be happy.

Her many fans want the same. Fame came quickly for Bouchard, but that also means negative attention from haters and critics when things weren’t going well. The good news now is that it looks like she’s turning her slide around; her ranking will move up to No. 112, putting her on the cusp of main-draw entry for the Australian Open.

There hasn’t been a story quite like Bouchard’s in the history of WTA tennis. But her story is far from over.

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