Eugenie Bouchard Advances To Quarter-Final Of 2015 Australian Open

Eugenie Bouchard of Canada continued her good showing in the first grand slam tournament of the year beating Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania in three sets, 6-1 5-7 6-2 to advance to the quarter-final round of the 2015 Australian Open. Seeded seventh in the Melbourne tournament, the “Canadian Sweetheart” lost a close second set but dominated both the first and third sets in the match that lasted over two hours.

Bouchard was more aggressive in the opening set hitting 10 winners and breaking Begu twice in two opportunities. The Canadian had 22 unforced errors in the second set alone and she paid the price as Begu broke her four times in 9 opportunities. Bouchard recovered in the third hitting a 11-of-13 (85%) clip on first serves in the third set and took advantage of Begu’s 15 unforced errors in the final set. Bouchard was far from contented with her performance against Begu.

“My level totally dropped a little bit and that’s really not good,” Bouchard said in the post-match interview in the tournament’s official website. “It's disappointing for me because I want to play so well and I want to be perfect. That's not possible. It happens.I think I started being a bit less aggressive, a bit too passive, and you know, that's not my game at all. I don't do well when that happens.”

The second set loss for Bouchard was the first in this tournament as she won in straight sets in her previous three matches in Melbourne. She beat A.Friedsam, 6-2 6-4 in the first round, K. Bertens, 6-0 6-2 in the second round and C. Garcia, 7-5 6-0 in the third round. In her first Aussie Open experience in 2014 she reached the semi-final round and is poised to duplicate the feat if she can get past Maria Sharapova of Russia in the quarter-finals. Sharapova easily beat Shuai Peng of China in straight sets, 6-2 6-0 in her own Round of 16 match-up.

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