Eugenie Bouchard's two-month winless streak ends in Rome, after a nervy victory over Kazakhstan's Zarina Diyas
After six consecutive losses to less-accomplished players over the last two months, Genie Bouchard's inevitable slump-busting victory was unlikely to be straightforward.
There are no style points in tennis, mercifully, because the 21-year-old Canadian's 6-3, 6-4 win over Kazakhstan's Zarina Diyas, ranked No. 34, in Rome on Wednesday would have suffered multiple deductions.
In the end, the only thing that mattered was the result. You can throw the stats out the window when a match is 99.999999999 per cent mental. And now Bouchard can stop thinking about the losing streak and start building upon a one-match winning streak.
She will do that Thursday against a familiar foe, No. 10 seed Carla Suárez Navarro of Spain, who needed barely an hour Wednesday to roll over Great Britain's Heather Watson 6-1, 6-1.
Wednesday's match, on an outside court at the Foro Italico, was not available on television or livestream. So all we can go on are the numbers, which are ugly.
There were five breaks of serve in the first set, and Bouchard won just two of 10 points on her second serve.
Nevertheless, down 2-3 in the first set, Bouchard ran out the set and beyond, a nine-game run giving her a 6-3, 5-0 lead as she attempted to serve it out for the first time.
Unassailable, right? A mere formality.
These days, nothing is a formality for Bouchard, who led in her last match, 6-0, 3-1 over Barbora Strycova in Madrid 10 days ago and eventually lost 0-6, 6-3, 6-3.
And so, the lead slowly shriveled. From 5-0, 30-love, Bouchard was broken. Then Diyas saved three match points to hold for 2-5 – winning more points in that single game than she had in her three previous service games in that set, all Bouchard service breaks.
At 5-2, Bouchard tried again, only to be broken at 15. Then Diyas held her serve again.
Suddenly, it was 5-4. And Bouchard found herself serving for the match for the third time. How tightly was she squeezing the racquet? It would be hard to fault her if she were. But she managed to tiptoe over the finish line – if not leaping, at least stepping over a big mental hurdle to get back in the win column.
If your French is up to it, here's an interview she did in Rome. (Translations here)
On Thursday, she will test herself again against a talented clay-court player against whom she forged an epic comeback in the French Open quarter-finals a year ago.
The 7-6, 2-6, 7-5 victory, after being down 1-4 in the third as the Spaniard lacked the belief to close it out and Bouchard, then so full of confidence, never stopped believing, was arguably the finest win of her career.
The fortunes of the two women have changed somewhat since then, with Suárez Navarro now in the top 10 herself. And the stakes in the third round of the Italian Open obviously won't be the same as they were in the final eight at Roland Garros.
But perhaps, having gotten off the shneid, channeling all the positive memories she must have stored away from that match, Bouchard will be able to swing freely.
Amazingly, it will only be the second time all season that Bouchard has faced a player in the top 20 – never mind the top 10; the first was her quarter-final loss to Maria Sharapova at the Australian Open in January.
