Eugenie Bouchard moves on at Family Circle Cup, could face Venus Williams

Montreal's Genie Bouchard quickly put the disappointment of an early exit from the Sony Open in Miami behind her Tuesday, trouncing Alla Kudryavtseva 6-2, 6-0 in 58 minutes at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, S.C. to move into the third round.

Her possible opponent on Thursday? Venus Williams.

Williams suffered the ignominious tennis bagel in the second set against Czech opponent Barbora Zahlavova Strycova Tuesday before prevailing 6-3, 0-6, 7-5.

That was a first-round match for Williams, who is the No. 11 seed in the tournament; the top eight seeds, including No. 6 Bouchard, had first-round byes.

She will play Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa on Wednesday for the right to face Bouchard.

We use the word "possible" because nothing is certain in tennis. Williams's little sister Serena, who just won the big tournament in Miami, was topped by little-known Slovak Jana Cepelova 6-4, 6-4 in her first match Tuesday night. Williams was hobbled by a left leg strain, and told reporters afterwards she was just "just dead," and needed a few weeks off where she didn't think about tennis to regroup for the upcoming European clay-court season.

This tournament, one of the oldest and most venerable events on the professional women's circuit, is the only one all year on the WTA Tour to be played on artificial clay, or Har-Tru,

which is fairly common in clubs across North America but rarely used at the top pro level.

Bouchard's day ended quickly against the qualifier Kudryavtseva, currently ranked outside the top 100 but having good success in doubles. The two games the Russian did win came on Bouchard's serve. In other words, Kudryavtseva served seven games, and was broken seven times. She won just 1-of-15 points when she had to deliver a second serve.

The biggest issue Bouchard seemed to have on the day was a minor case of the sniffles.

This is one of the first times Bouchard has entered a tournament with something on the line. At other events so far this season, she had few, if any, points to defend from the previous year's result. So anything she did was gravy.

Not quite so at the Family Circle Cup, where she was a surprise quarter-finalist a year ago after coming out the qualifying, ranked No. 114.

But as it works out, the 20-year-old won't lose any ground from her current No. 20 spot in the rankings even if she loses in the third round or the quarter-finals. Nor can she make up much ground – unless she wins the tournament.

But she did get to meet the local chapter of the Genie Army, who seemed quite well-organized and even had a T-shirt for the army's "general".

Another Montrealer, Aleksandra Wozniak, had equal success at another WTA Tour Tuesday, this one on hard courts at altitude in Monterrey, Mexico. But she had to work a lot harder for it.

Wozniak, who had to win three matches in qualifying (the third a three-set victory over countrywoman Heidi El Tabakh), faced Mexican wild card Marcela Zacarias.

The 26-year-old struggled in the first set, but then found her level in a 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 victory.

She could – possibly – face No. 2 seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia in the second round. But Ivanovic first had to defeat Urszula Radwanska of Poland late Tuesday to make the date.

In doubles, Gloucester, Ont.'s Gabriela Dabrowski, seeded No. 2 in Monterrey with partner Oksana Kalashnikova of Georgia, survived the first round as they defeated Mexican wild cards Alejandra Cisneros and Camila Fuentes 7-5, 1-6, [10-7].

El Tabakh, paired with American Allie Kiick, wasn't so fortunate. They were defeated by Megan Moulton-Levy of the U.S. and Darija Jurak of Croatia, the No. 3 seeds, 7-5, 4-6, [10-7] in their first-round match.