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Loss to Ana Ivanovic likely eliminates Eugenie Bouchard from the WTA Tour Championships
SINGAPORE – "Why do I play this tournament if I'm not prepared?"
During a 90-second coaching consult Genie Bouchard lost a 6-1 first set to Ana Ivanovic Wednesday night at the WTA Tour finals, coach Nick Saviano did most of the talking. Those 10 words were the Canadian's only contribution.
The coach found a lot of positive things to say, despite the one-sided nature of that set. But the pupil was having a little more trouble with it. And though Bouchard played a little better than she did in her first match against SImona Halep Monday, she still lost 6-1, 6-3 and is now 0-2 in the round-robin portion of the event, with only an infinitesimal chance of advancing to the semi-finals this weekend.
"Usually I can rely on myself to stay in the point, and only if I go for a high‑risk ball do I accept an error. Now, it's routine balls are flying on me and little things like that. That's just consistency, practicing, playing matches, which I haven't done so much," Bouchard said afterwards. "She definitely went for it as well. She has been playing really good tennis all year. It's not like I didn't play a good opponent. She totally went out and went for ‑‑ like, got her points. Totally took her chances."
Many of the players were match-shy and unprepared coming into Singapore. One difference, of course, is that this is Bouchard's first experience with the round-robin format, first experience at the year-end championships, and the end of an eventful year.
By the time she came into her press conference, a little calmer, no longer inwardly seething (and perhaps after a few words from Saviano), she had an answer to her own on-court question.
"(Not being prepared) is something I knew going in, so it's not so much of a surprise. But it's still disappointing, I guess. I still had the belief I can try to work my way into it, which is what I've done in the past. You're never 100 per cent perfectly prepared for every event," Bouchard said. "Just unfortunate that it would happen at a big event like this one. Definitely better to be here than not to be here. Just been trying to give it my all and do what I can do to try and prepare; that's what I've done. But I still don't feel like myself on the court."
Meanwhile, Ivanovic played a terrific match. She had her usual issues with the service toss. But in the first set, they all went in anyway. And by the time she got to 5-0, she was 12-for-12 when she got her first delivery in the court.
The toss caught up with her a little in the second set. And Bouchard was more competitive. She recuperated an early break against her, and she had some chances. And she fought. On her serve at 3-3 – the swing game of the match, she saved five break points against her before a 115 km/h second serve waddled like a duck and quivered into the net on Ivanovic's sixth opportunity to break.
That was well worth a racquet bounce.
Ivanovic, who had lost to Bouchard in their last two meetings, had a few ideas about what changed this time. At least, she looked at the circumstances, and Bouchard being a WTA Finals rookie, and decided it gave her a bit of an edge.
"I felt today I had advantage at different situation because it's her first Championships. Also, this is the first time that she's ranked higher than me in all of our matches, so pressure was on her.I really tried to use this as my advantage and tried to be aggressive and play free; it worked," Ivanovic said. "She's definitely a tough player. When you give her chances, like in the second set few times I was hitting a little bit shorter and she would use this and hit very powerful. So I really tried to take this away from her. I knew she liked that style of play. I tried to keep her on the run."
With Ivanovic, as always, self-belief is absolutely everything.
Unless the near-impossible happens and things break just perfectly in her pool, Bouchard has one match left in her season, against Serena Williams Thursday night.
The question is, which Serena will she face?
The world No. 1, U.S. Open champion Serena? Or the imposter who showed up on the centre court against Simona Halep Wednesday afternoon and took a 6-0, 6-2 licking. It was only the second time in Williams' long career that she has failed to win more than two games in a match; the last time was back in 1998, at a now-defunct tournament in Oklahoma City, against a long-retired South African named Joanette Kruger.
