The dominant form was reminiscent of the good old days back in 2014.
And as Canadian Genie Bouchard rolled into the quarter-finals at the Malaysian Open with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Kurumi Nara of Japan, another 2014-esque trend emerged: the draw has opened up for her.
On paper, the 22-year-old, seeded No. 6 at the lower-level WTA Tour event, was to meed No. 1 seed Roberta Vinci of Italy in the quarter-finals.
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - MARCH 02: Eugenie Bouchard of Canada in action during Day Three of the 2016 BMW Malaysian …
And so, the "rematch" of the match that never was – the scheduled fourth-round encounter at the US Open that Bouchard was forced to forfeit after suffering a concussion in the women's locker room two days before – will not happen.
Instead, Bouchard will play the winner of a match between Kai-Chen Chang of Taipei (who defeated Vinci and is ranked No. 153) and Cagla Buyukakcay of Turkey, a 26-year-old who reached her career-best ranking of No. 128 Monday.
It will be, to say the least, a far easier task then dealing with the varied, all-court game of Vinci.
These were exactly the kinds of opportunities that presented themselves to Bouchard during her golden run in 2014; on several occasions, when she was to have met Serena Williams in Grand Slam tournaments, the world No. 1 was beaten before she made the date. Vinci is no Williams, but Kuala Lumpur is no All-England Club, either. The task remains the same: take that opportunity, and maximize it.
It took Bouchard just an hour and six minutes to dispose of Nara, who had toiled over three hours to win her first-round match against Daniela Hantuchova in a third-set tiebreaker Monday. The Canadian had five aces, just two double faults, and most importantly never faced a break point on her own serve.
She broke Nara four times, in 10 opportunities.
Source: Yahooo Sports
Second round: Kristina Kucova (Svk) bt Hsieh Su-wei (Tpe) 6-1, 3-6, 6-3; Eugenie Bouchard (Can) bt Kurumi Nara (Jpn) 6-1, 6-2; Wang Qiang (Chn) bt Duan Ying-Ying (Chn) 6-4, 6-4; Sabine Lisicki (Ger) bt Barbora Krejcikova (Cze) 7-5, 6-3.
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