Andrea Petkovic dashes Eugenie Bouchard’s finals hopes at the Family Circle Cup

In the first set of their semifinal at the Family Circle Cup Saturday, Montreal’s Genie Bouchard left opponent Andrea Petkovic absolutely no room to breathe.

Her relentless attack was completely and utterly suffocating. And after breezing through that first set 6-1, there was every indication the 20-year-old Canadian would be on her way to the biggest final of her young career.

Slowly but surely, though, the 26-year-old German found little spaces. She hit harder. She attacked a little more. She ran down one more ball. And even when she appeared to indicate to her coach halfway through the third set that her legs were gone, she found fresher legs.

It was Bouchard, no doubt running on fumes both mentally and physically after a third taxing three-setter in three days, who ran out of answers as Petkovic prevailed 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 to end the Canadian’s great run in Charleston.

After the second set, coach Nick Saviano came out for a pep talk, reiterating some of the magic words of wisdom he conjured up during her previous wins over Venus Williams and Jelena Jankovic this week (both former No. 1s) about focusing on process more than outcome.

“The goal is to play the point as well as you can. You’re doing a pretty good job there, just got out of the moment a little bit. Do you agree?” Saviano asked her.

The response was a meek little shoulder shrug, which probably wasn’t what the coach was hoping for. It was definitely an omen.

Saviano tried again. “This is what it’s all about, man. Work hard, stay in the moment, play

like a champion and walk around like a champion,” he said.

For a while, it seemed Bouchard had found her mojo again. She returned to stalking the tennis ball like a leopard, leaping on each one and sending it back over before Petkovic even had time to recover from her previous stroke.

She broke Petkovic at 2-2 in the third set to inch ahead. But even then, Bouchard wasn’t returning nearly as well on the big points as she was earlier in the week – even earlier in the match.

Petkovic saved a break point down 2-4 in that set, and then broke back to even it at 4-4.

Bouchard saved a match point when she served to stay in it at 4-5. But when it came time to do it again, at 5-6, she had nothing.

She missed a forehand down the line by a few threads. Petkovic hit the baseline with a backhand. A weak Bouchard second serve quite rightly got crushed. And with a final forehand that went long, Bouchard was broken at love.

All the tough tennis she played in hot and humid conditions the last three days seemed to catch up with her. Petkovic, who did play doubles as well, had a far more relaxing route to the semifinals, winning two of her matches 6-0, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-1.

Still, had the engaging Petkovic, who has charged back into the women's tennis conversation from a lowly ranking of No. 177 after ankle surgery and various other injuries, flinched for even a minute or two, Bouchard might well have pulled it out.

But they rarely give you anything in the semi-finals of big tournaments. Your opponent usually wants it just as badly as you do. And she’s usually as good, or better, than you are.

It was still a terrific week for Bouchard, even if her WTA Tour singles ranking won’t change much. She will move up one spot to No. 19.

After a week in which she will hopefully find some down time, Bouchard will be back in action April 19-20 in Quebec City as Canada tries to advance to the top group in Fed Cup against the Slovak Republic.