Former French Open semifinalist Eugenie Bouchard slumped to a straight-set defeat to Iga Swiatek in the third round of the French Open 2020. 19-year-old Swiatek displayed great maturity and power-hitting in the third round clash to dispatch the former World No. 5.

Both players are known to be aggressive hitters. Swiatek hasn’t lost a set yet in the two matches she has played. She has also hit 43 winners. Swiatek has also won more than 60 percent of the points in her last two matches. Bouchard who is ranked 168th has been playing really well lately. With her low ranking, she has had to navigate through a lot of top 100 players in her recent matches. But she just couldn’t get it together against 54th ranked Iga Swiatek.

Eugenie Bouchard vs Iga Swiatek: First set

Swiatek started on the front foot as she broke Bouchard in the first game. In the first two games, Bouchard played ordinary tennis and Swiatek punished her thoroughly and took a 2-0 lead. Swiatek’s favorite down the line backhand shot was coming off well. Bouchard was slow in getting into her grove and initially struggled with her shots.

The Canadian started with her aggressive forehand and broke back to level the set 2-2. However, Swiatek targeted Bouchard’s backhand, which was error-prone and so got an easy break back to lead 3-2. By 4-2, Swiatek had hit a mammoth 16 winners. Swiatek didn’t give Bouchard a chance to open her arms and broke Bouchard for the third time in the set to take the opening set 6-3.

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The second set

Bouchard was still behind Swiatek in the rallies, since the Polish player had always prevailed in the longer rallies. The Canadian had trouble dealing with Swiatek’s backhand, which had produced pinpoint winners. Although Bouchard had 63 percent of the first serves in, her second service was her Achilles heel and Swiatek seemingly took a 2-0 lead.

In the next game, Bouchard showed a few encouraging signs. The Canadian forced a few errors from Swiatek’s backhand, which surprisingly gave Bouchard the break back 2-1. It seemed like Bouchard was back in the game as she hit a few brilliant cross-court forehand winners, and leveled the set 2-2. But in the end, Bouchard won just three points on her second serve in the whole match. Swiatek continued to dominate and won four games in a row to seal the set and match with 6-3, 6-2.

Swiatek could next play Simona Halep in the fourth round. If they face each other, it will be a repeat of last year’s fourth round tie at Roland Garros, where Halep thrashed her 6-1,6-0.