Former World No.5 Eugenie Bouchard continued her post tennis restart form as she upset the No.1 seed at the Istanbul Open, Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6 6-7 6-2 to advance into the 3rd round. 

Bouchard came into the main draw through the qualifiers. Her opponent Kuznetsova is ranked 34, 238 places above Bouchard, and is also a two-time Grand Slam champion. So beating a player of her caliber is great for Bouchard’s revival.

In the match, Bouchard constantly threatened the Russian’s serve. The Canadian displayed her aggressive style of play coupled with some good defense which was enough to upset the top seed. 

In the first set, Bouchard was broken when she was serving for the match. But she held her nerves and won a gritty tie-breaker to clinch the first set. The second set was more evenly poised as Bouchard got an early break but gave away the advantage a few games later. Kuznetsova even saved three match points on her serve at 5-4 to stretch the second set towards a tie-breaker where Kuznetsova showed her resilience to win the second set.

The final set saw Bouchard dominate Kuznetsova from the first point. Learning from her mistake of giving away her advantage at crunch moments in the earlier sets, Bouchard was 3-0 up with a double break. She then went on to keep her advantage winning the set 6-2 and the match.

Eugenie Bouchard post tennis restart

It is an interesting turn in form for Bouchard who failed to pass the qualifying stage of the Australian Open earlier this year. She was struggling with her form before the midseason tennis break, induced by the pandemic. The former Wimbledon finalist was ranked at 330 when the season resumed. 

She played in the Prague Open post the restart, reaching the quarterfinals where is lost to the eventual runner up Elise Mertens. This helped her jump to 272 in the ranking. She missed out on the US Open and the Western & Southern Open due to her ranking but Bouchard has vowed to increase her ranking by playing as many tournaments as possible including the challengers.

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