WTA Istanbul: Genius Bouchard with a mental masterpiece
Eugenie Bouchard reached the quarter-finals at the WTA International tournament in Istanbul with a victory over the top seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova - and successfully pressed the reset button in the third round.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Sep 11, 2020, 06:46 am
Bouchard and Kuznetsova played 2 hours and 50 on the court on Thursday evening, with 7: 6 (3), 6: 7 (5), 6: 2, the Canadian ultimately got the upper hand over the two-time Grand Slam tournament winner.
It almost didn't come to a three-sentence drama: Bouchard had already led 7: 6 (3) and 4: 1 against top seed Kuznetsova (WTA No. 34). And at 5: 4 (and Kuznetsova's serve) three match points. But the 35-year-old "Kuzi" stayed tuned and got set two.
And actually should have started there with a mental lead. However, it was Bouchard who made a lightning start, made 13 points in a row, led 3-0 in a flash and now could not take this lead out of hand.
Bouchard tries to forget
"That was extremely tough mentally," she said, relieved. "I just tried not to think about looking the other way. If I had thought about it, I would have become angry and frustrated, that would hardly have helped. I was literally trying to get amnesia and forget it."
Bouchard is still on a good way in the direction of old fields in terms of world rankings. At least so slowly. In Istanbul, after Auckland (earlier this year) and Prague (in August), she is in her third quarter-finals of the year, and a return to the top 200 is in sight. Specifically: It would be done if the former number 5 in the WTA ranking wins against Danka Kovinic on Friday. In the current live ranking, Genie is in 216th place. In August it was still listed in 330th place.
Bouchard had recently made a name for himself again in terms of sport and received praise from Gil Reyes , Andre Agassi's legendary fitness coach. In Prague, Bouchard also had Rennae Stubbs as a trainer by her side.