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With former coach Nick Saviano by her side, Eugenie Bouchard begins her Charleston quest with a solid victory
CHARLESTON, S.C. – The last match Genie Bouchard played with coach Nick Saviano by her side came nearly 18 months ago, in Singapore at the 2014 WTA Tour Finals.
Bouchard was trounced 6-1, 6-1 by eventual champion Serena Williams in that one, although no one knew at the time that it would be the last.
Tuesday in Charleston, Bouchard and Saviano renewed their collaboration – at least for the duration of this week’s Volvo Car Open – and the first result was a very positive one.
Bouchard defeated Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania, a quality player perhaps a bit hobbled by a knee issue, 6-3, 6-4 to advance to a second-round meeting Wednesday with Spanish clay-courter Lourdes Domingues Liño.
Here’s what she had to say about it afterward.
The match took nearly two hours, and Bouchard was forced to defend on her serve quite a bit. She faced 12 break points and saved 10 of them, including three in the third game of the match. Dulgheru did eventually break, but Bouchard returned the favour immediately and closed out that first set.
She did it with a flourish, a a bit of a lucky volley, which earned Saviano a smile from his protégé to counter the “See, I told you!” looks when she missed a volley or was passed.
Then came the first on-court pep talk of the Saviano era, Part II.
“Remember, the number-one goal is to play the point, execute as well as you can. It’s not to win the point,” he said. “Every ball as well as you can. Like a champion, relentlessly, absolutely no sign of weakness out there. Powerful, positive, wear this girl down.
“You’re doing great. You should be pleased with yourself,” he added.
As these things often go, Bouchard was broken in her first service game of the second set. But she quickly got it back. Saviano, who had been very vocal during the first set, was quieter during this one, spacing out his encouragements.
Bouchard didn’t need them. When she would outlast Dulgheru in a rally, particularly ones where she had to do a lot of defending to stay in the point, she urged herself on with a “C’MON!” and a fist pump.
"Genie played a good, solid match today, competed and executed quite well," Saviano told Eh Game. "The great thing about her is she's always looking to get better."
The body language was overwhelmingly of the positive kind. It was in stark contrast to her last match, a three-set loss to Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic two weeks ago on a hard court at the Miami Open.
Bouchard’s serve was regularly clocking in at 110 mph, and Dulgheru seemed unable to attack her second serve. Or, at the very least, the Romanian hardly tried although to give Bouchard credit, she went for it most of the time. Dulgheru was able to punish it only a couple of times in the entire match. Bouchard won 51 per cent of those second-serve points; Dulgheru won 55 per cent of points on her own second serve, an aspect Bouchard can probably improve upon in her next match.
Dulgheru was on the receiving end of the non-handshake a year ago in Montreal, when the Canadian Fed Cup team played Romania and squeaked through even though Bouchard, in the throes of her woeful 2015, lost both her matches (including the one against Dulgheru).
After this match, the handshake was especially warm and friendly.
Bouchard’s next opponent is a diminutive (officially 5-foot-4, perhaps on skates) 35-year-old from Spain who is currently ranked No. 112 and considered a clay-court specialist, although the Volvo Car Open is being played on artificial clay (Har-Tru). All of her career singles titles and finals appearances have been on the red dirt.
When Dominguez Liño turned pro, Bouchard was two years old. This will be their first-ever meeting.
The Spaniard has two career singles (both in Bógota, Colombia) and six career doubles titles at the WTA Tour level, and a combined 53 on the lower-level ITF circuit. Her career-high singles ranking of No. 40 came nearly 10 years ago, but she’s still out there grinding; she upset higher-ranked American Christina Mchale in the first round.
