Former World No.5 Eugenie Bouchard reached the semifinals of the WTA Istanbul Open after a gritty three-set victory over Danka Kovinic in the quarterfinals.

Bouchard is ranked lowly at 272 and so getting a victory over 92nd ranked Danka Kovinic would be huge. This win will see her climb into the top 200 and continue her resurgence. Bouchard entered the main draw of Istanbul Open through the qualifiers beating players way above her ranking.

Eugenie Bouchard vs Danka Kovinic: First set

Bouchard came into the match beating the No.1 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the 2nd round. And it was expected of the Canadian to dominate from the first point. But Bouchard was slow and patchy in the first games of the opening set. She was broken in her first service game itself. However, she kept knocking at Kovinic’s serve, but the Montenegrin saved a total of four breaks points to hold her serve and thus won the first set 6-3.

Second Set

Mistakes kept coming from Bouchard’s racket as she was broken in the first game of the second set as well. Pressure from Bouchard caused errors from Kovinic’s side, who also made some costly unforced errors, which finally helped Bouchard to break her serve and level the set 1-1.

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Bouchard tried changing her game in the second set, mixing it with some drop shots and continuing her aggressive down the line strokes. And this made the match very patchy as both the players were hitting more errors than winners.

Bouchard seemed to have slight discomfort in her right shoulder. But still, the former Wimbledon finalist was gritty and astute. She saved a few breakpoints at 4-4 and held her game at 5-4 and broke Kovinic in the next game to win the set 6-4.

Third Set

Like the previous set, Bouchard was broken in the first game. But instead, she broke Kovinic in the very next game, bringing the deciding to level at 1-1. What followed after that was scrappy holds from both the players.

With the match nearing the 3-hour mark players were visibly tired but none of them had given up. As we reached 5-5, both the players were indulging in fewer risks. At 6-5 on Kovinic’s serve, Bouchard was finding the lines a bit more and that created an opening. Bouchard got 2 match points and converted them. A relieved Bouchard couldn’t hide her joy as she won the match 3-6 6-4 7-5.

In 2019, Bouchard had endured a 13 match losing streak. Her fortunes didn’t change at the start of 2020 as well. Bouchard failed to qualify for the Australian Open and by the time tennis went on hiatus due to the pandemic she was ranked 330. Post the tennis break, however, Bouchard has put in some good performances which have boosted her rankings. She reached the quarterfinals of the WTA Prague Open, which propelled her to 272.

Bouchard has vowed to improve her ranking. Due to her abysmal ranking, she couldn’t qualify for the US Open 2020 and missed out on the wildcards as well. Now that she has reached the semifinals in Istanbul, she can be a little optimistic about playing in the French Open in a few weeks’ time.

WATCH: Eugenie Bouchard Hits an Insane Passing Shot in Her Recent Match