A third-round loss to Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia marks the end of Eugenie Bouchard's Wimbledon run

WIMBLEDON – Genie Bouchard said she felt a little off Saturday as she took on Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia for a spot in the second week of Wimbledon.

The result was a 6-4, 6-3 third-round defeat that featured some on-court frustration expressed, a lot of balls sailing in the swirling wind on Court No. 2 and some very demonstrative and aggressive play from Cibulkova.

“I’m disappointed to lose, of course, but on top of that I didn’t play good tennis. For sure, my opponent played good tennis, but I felt off. It’s disappointing to play like that at Wimbledon,” Bouchard said.

The lack of rhythm on the groundstrokes was evident enough from the number of shanks and balls missed by wide margins, although Bouchard’s efforts on defence kept her in the match for a while. She said if she could go back and do it again, she’d want to be more relaxed on court.

Easier said than done. The work-in-progress that is the resurrection of the 22-year-old’s career has had its peaks and valleys. But the one hurdle she still has to get over consistently is how to remain calm when she’s the favourite, or when the going starts getting serious. Bouchard was impressive in her first two matches at Wimbledon, the majority of which took place on Centre Court in the big spotlight.

In her first round against Magdalena Rybarikova, she faced an opponent who had half her visibly body parts wrapped. And she played well – most impressively when the match was completed on the Centre Court in the late evening and things got a little tighter. In the second round against Brit Johanna Konta, she played a player eerily similar to herself but one who is going through the phase of her career that Bouchard dealt with two years ago and was playing in the pressure cooker of her home-country Grand Slam.

Again, she was exemplary – enthousiastic, determined, consistent.

Friday, though, after waiting a long time because of the rain delays, she found herself out in less than ideal conditions. It was chilly, and the wind was swirling around a court that is a lot more open to the elements than Centre Court. She was playing an opponent who, despite being ranked higher than Bouchard, was one she had beaten the only two times they met, both within the last nine months.

The reward was a trip to the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time since last year’s US Open, a match she never played. The reward would have been another opportunity against world No. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska, who beat her at Eastbourne and also in the second round of the Australian Open back in January.

Both previous times against Cibulkova, Bouchard won the first set, which she couldn’t do this time. And after putting that first one in her pocket this time, the Slovak really stepped on the gas. She’s an excellent competitor, a very good match player and her base level of play is fairly consistent all the time.

The former top-10 player and Australian Open finalist was out for several months last year with an Achilles’ injury, no small thing for a diminutive player whose wheels are the foundation of her game. But Cibulkova slowly has made her way back up the rankings, and is the No. 19 seed here.

The frustration grew for Bouchard, whose body language was more in line with recent immature behaviour in defeat than it was the increasingly composed manner in which she has won or lost in recent weeks. She received a code violation when she, slowly and deliberately, fired a ball right out of the stadium and onto Court 11 on the other side after Cibulkova broke her at love to go up 3-1 in the second set.

“I definitely was a bit emotional out there. It's frustrating to feel like you're not playing your best tennis at Wimbledon. So that's how I felt,” she said. “You know, sometimes when I get it out, I can turn it around and play a bit better. Yeah, didn't really happen this time, though.”

In the next game, trying to break back, she airmailed a final backhand that allowed the Slovak to ease out of trouble, and cracked her racquet on the grass.

They’re a little touchy about bruising the lawns around here, and chair umpire Mariana Alves assessed another code violation that resulted in a point penalty, which meant Bouchard began the next game on her serve at love-15. “I’m not sure I’ve ever gotten (a point penalty). I don’t do that often. But when you hit your racquet on the grass here, they’re a lot more strict,” she said.

After saving a couple of break points, Bouchard managed to hold there. But she wasn’t ever able to gather enough momentum to make a charge at Cibulkova, who was playing with confidence and handling Bouchard’s serve as if it was a puffball.

Conversely, Bouchard had a lot more trouble than she wanted with Cibulkova’s serve, which rarely hits 100 mph; in fact, there isn’t even a lot of difference, velocity-wise, between her first and second serves. The Canadian couldn’t find the timing there, either.

Coach Nick Saviano stood outside Court No.2, waiting for Bouchard to exit – it was a short wait – and didn’t have much to say. “Cibulkova played well,” was about all he would offer before he followed Bouchard back to the players’ area. He had to hustle; his charge even had the security guys scrambling to keep up with her and made it back to the main building in about three minutes flat.

Bouchard and partner Sabine Lisicki, who also lost her third-round match Saturday, are still in the doubles – that is to say, they haven’t even played their first-round match yet. It was supposed to be Saturday, but the weather delayed the time the Canadian got on court for her singles and at that point, with the required “suitable rest”, the ship had sailed. She is scheduled to play on the middle Sunday along with most of the Canadian contingent with the notable exception of Milos Raonic, who has the day off before his fourth-round match against David Goffin Monday.