For the first time since the Australian Open, Eugenie Bouchard is Grand Slam victorious

NEW YORK – Some of the old Genie Bouchard fist-pumping fighting spirit was on display Monday on Court 17 at the US Open, some welcome positive body language in a season of slumps, and slumping shoulders.

At the end of it, nearly two hours in the heat and humidity, Bouchard had secured a 6-4, 6-3 victory over American Alison Riske and advances to the second round of singles, in a draw that already has some big holes in it for an opportunistic player to squeak through.

No doubt bandwidth will be spilled about the immediate “Jimmy Connors” effect on Bouchard’s play, even though Riske was one of the players Bouchard has actually beaten this season – and on Riske’s favourite surface, grass, in the bargain.

Here's what it looked like.

At the same time, even though Bouchard said she has tried to erase the 6-1, 6-0 thumping at the hands of the crafty Roberta Vinci last week in New Haven from her memory, she said she has felt different this week.

Bouchard described Connors as “very energetic”, and said he helped to lift her spirits a little, in part because he simply believes in her.

On Monday, she played as though she had a little more belief in herself.

Riske certainly gave her openings with errors and untimely double-faults just when it seemed the American might get a little control of the match and push it to three sets.

Bouchard was down a break early in the first set, but broke right back with the help of a couple of Riske double faults. She was broken when she served for the first set. But then Riske helped her out again and she was able to put the first set in her pocket.

Bouchard has been there before this season; the challenge has been to keep that momentum going and not let the match get out of hand.

At 2-2 in the second, Bouchard was broken – but she broke right back at love. At 3-4, after a couple of unforced errors in the rally and then a double-fault in the final point, Riske gave up the break. That stroke of luck earned a Bouchard fist pump.

This time, there were few issues serving it out. Bouchard had two aces in the final game, pulled the trigger on a big forehand, and that was it.

The Riske errors didn’t mean Bouchard didn’t play well. She did. She was fairly consistent, served quite well, and executed change-of-direction groundstrokes at the appropriate times.

The official stats had Bouchard 11-for-16 at the net in the first set (and 17-for-24 for the match). Somehow, it didn’t seem that often in the first set. But there was no doubt the Canadian did try to come forward.

At times, Bouchard seemed more confident in her shot selection, going for it rather than wrestling with her conscience about whether to go for higher risk or stay in the rally.

Meanwhile, Riske didn’t seem to have a whole lot of belief; that might be why her game let her down at crucial moments and why she’s not consistently ranked higher than she is.

No matter; Bouchard next plays Slovenian Polona Hercog on Wednesday in the second round. Hercog, just 24 but a pro since 2006, is being coached by (and reportedly is married to) Zeljko Krajan, the former coach of Dinara Safina and Dominika Cibulkova and Borna Coric, to name a few.

The two met only once, but it was eons ago, during Fed Cup back in 2011.  When Bouchard takes the court against her, she will see much of that same backhand slice that tied her in knots against Vinci last week.

We’ll see if her more positive frame of mind allows her to turn that around.