Eugenie Bouchard untroubled by wild-card opponent as she cruises in Kuala Lumpur

As Genie Bouchard works her way back up to the top of women’s tennis, there are going to be nights like Monday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

It was hot, humid, and at most there were a few hundred people in the stands. The gloomy lighting appeared to cast odd shadows, and an unknown opponent ranked outside the top 250 she was expected to easily outclass loomed on the other side of the net.

It wasn’t the glamorous part of the trip – nothing like Bouchard running into a life-sized promotional billboard of herself in the nearby shopping centre. But the 22-year-old had no issues as she defeated 26-year-old wild card Ling Zhang of Hong Kong 6-3, 6-1.

It took just an hour and nine minutes, although it wasn’t without its patchy moments.

After taking an early break lead in the first set, Bouchard handed it back with a series of wild unforced errors. But against Zhang, currently ranked No. 278, whose best was No. 184 nearly five years ago, there was margin for error. Her last appearance at a WTA Tour-level event dated all the way back to last October, when she received a wild card into the tournament on her home turf in Hong Kong.

Zhang lost that match 6-0, 6-3 to Kurumi Nara of Japan – who, coincidentally, will be Bouchard’s next opponent.

Zhang appeared to have a decent serve, but wasn’t nearly consistent enough to stand up to Bouchard’s attack.

The Canadian rolled to a 5-1 lead in the second set and although she had another patchy game there, forced into saving a pair of break points, there was never a sense things were going to turn around.

Bouchard rose nine spots in the new rankings released Monday, from No. 61 to No. 52, after her efforts as a wild card entry into last week’s top-level event in Doha.

When she originally entered the Kuala Lumpur event, her ranking stood at No. 37 and she was the highest-ranked player on their list.

But the tournament worked hard to improve its player field; organizers managed to secure three solid players as wild cards, and Bouchard ended up being only the No. 6 seed in the draw.

The top seed is Roberta Vinci, the 33-year-old 2015 US Open finalist who just joined the top 10 for the first time. The No. 2 seed is Elina Svitolina of Ukraine (No. 19 this week) and No. 3 is Sabine Lisicki of Germany (No. 31).

If Bouchard can defeat Nara (she is 1-0 against her, beating her handily at a tournament in Osaka Japan back in 2013), she could face Vinci in the quarterfinals.

The Italian was the player Bouchard was scheduled to meet in the fourth round of the US Open last fall, before the locker-room accident forced her to withdraw from the tournament. If it happens, there will be plenty of interest in that one.

But Nara is not to be overlooked; at her best, the diminutive Japanese player will pose a challenge similar to the one Bouchard faced last week in Doha, when Saisai Zheng of China got nearly every single ball back into court and forced the Canadian into overaggressive errors.

While the wind that played havoc with Bouchard’s consistency in the Middle East may not be a factor, the heat and intense humidity in Malaysia will pose other challenges. Even with a night match Monday, Bouchard still had a big ice towel wrapped around her neck during changeovers.

In Bouchard's favour is the the fact that Nara needed three hours and 19 minutes to win her first-round match over Daniela Hantuchova, 12-10 in the third-set tiebreaker, just before Bouchard took the court. But she will have a day to recover.