A dominant Eugenie Bouchard reaches the quarter-finals at the WTA tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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.

But the 33-year-old US Open finalist, the newest member of the WTA Tour's top 10, was beaten in her first-round match after accepting a wild card from the organizers.

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.