With the Rogers Cup quarter-finals in sight, Eugenie Bouchard presses the panic button against Kristina Kucova

MONTREAL – It was all falling into place for Genie Bouchard this week.

And then, almost as suddenly, it all fell apart Thursday night.

Bouchard was up a set and a break in the second set – twice – before succumbing to the pressure and nerves that had accumulated throughout her run this week at the Rogers Cup.

One cracked racquet (and a code violation warning) later, it was all over as qualifier Kristina Kucova of Slovakia upset Bouchard 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 and moved onto the quarter-finals while a disappointed Bouchard was left musing on how it was so close, only to slip away.

Here's what she said afterwards.

It began so well – a quick 4-0 lead with Bouchard having little trouble handling Kucova’s pretty average serve and taking the lead in the baseline rallies.

But after that, the 26-year-old Slovak (who hits two-handed on both sides) found her rhythm, adjusted to the pace and began putting a lot more balls into the court.

It was up to Bouchard to step it up a little, but she couldn’t. She broke Kucova twice in the second set, only to hand the break right back.

And after a flurry of errors handed Kucova that set, even a bathroom break proved little solace.

Simply - Bouchard got nervous. She saw her first Rogers Cup quarter-final within her grasp and then, she saw it slipping away before her eyes, feeling powerless to turn things around.

There were so many opportunities for both in a match that was long on unforced errors and missed opportunities. It wasn’t a match that the crowd could really get into although they were fully behind Bouchard all the way. Even by 11 p.m., when things were getting dramatic, not many fans had left.

Bouchard was 4-for-18 on break points, which came in bunches and disappeared just as quickly mostly because of errors like 110 km/hour second-seve returns she dumped in the bottom of the net.

Kucova went 5-for-16 on break points.

Coach Nick Saviano came out early in the third set and basically told his charge  to break down the pressure and nerves into little, point-sized morsels. He also told her to change up her patterns when returning serves out wide; Bouchard was playing them all crosscourt, and by a certain point her opponent was sitting there waiting for them.

Bouchard said later that she should have moved forward and finished more points off at the net. But she probably got skittish after badly missing some very makeable volleys early on.

In the end, the route this tournament took was not dissimilar to Bouchard’s Wimbledon.

She came in with few expectations and won her first two matches at the All-England Club quite comfortably. Suddenly, she was in the third round against Dominika Cibulkova – a tough player, but one she had beaten more than once – and that same pressure to succeed paralyzed her a little bit.

This time, the Canadian was a fairly heavy underdog in her first two matches against players who have been in the top 10, yet she came out on top playing top-level tennis.

Suddenly, she had a qualifier to reach the quarter-finals and most likely Johanna Konta, the player she defeated on her home turf at Wimbledon in the second round, to reach the semi-finals of a tournament that no longer had Serena Williams, or Garbiñe Muguruza, or Agnieszka Radwanska in it.

Not that she was getting ahead of herself in the match against Kucova, but you’d have to be a robot not to see the possibilities.

Getting through those two matches, winnable on paper, would have given Bouchard an excellent shot at being seeded at next month’s US Open.

Now, she’ll have to chalk it up to experience, remember the positive gains made as she heads to Rio de Janeiro on Monday to take part in her first Olympics.

For Kucova, it was the best moment of a tennis career that seemed a sure thing when she won the U.S. Open junior singles title but has proven a rocky road.

Kucova, who is here without a coach, had friend Geneviève Demers supporting her against an entire stadium of Bouchard supporters Thursday night. Ironically, the two met two years ago in Quebec City (Demer's home town) when Kucova was there to play Fed Cup – against Genie Bouchard. That was the infamous Handshake-Gate tie.

Demers, who also travelled to Washington, D.C. last week to support her friend, was loudly supporting Kucova Thursday night and wrapped her up in a big hug after the win. It was a bit of an awkward situation as Demers' boyfriend, Pierre-Luc Tessier, is the new tournament director of the Quebec City WTA event that finally managed to get Bouchard to make a commitment to playing this year for the first time since 2013.