It was the quarterfinal matchup tennis fans everywhere were hoping to see when the women’s draw for the 2015 Australian Open was announced heading into the year’s first major. Unfortunately, the Eugenie Bouchard - Maria Sharapova showdown did not live up to all the hype, as the five-time Grand Slam winner absolutely bulldozed the young Canadian 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the semi-finals.

While on the surface this one looked to be as compelling a battle as you could find, it turned out to be nothing more than one way traffic. After nearly dropping her second round match to qualifier Alexandrovna Panova, the No. 2 seed had been firing on all cylinders and getting better with each and every match.

Whereas Bouchard was coming off a rather uneven performance in her Round of Sixteen win over Irina-Camelia Begu but had still looked fairly impressive through the opening week of play. However, when it came down to crunch time the No. 7 seed was unable deliver when it mattered most.

As well as Sharapova played, the twenty year old native of Westmount, Quebec was erratic from the very first point and it continued throughout the match. While Bouchard had made a habit of getting off to slow starts in Melbourne, dropping her opening service game in three of her previous four matches, her return of serve had allowed her the necessary time to find her way and right the ship.

Problem being, the five-time Grand Slam champ wasn’t quite so cooperative as her previous opponents, pouncing on each and every opportunity that came her way. With the twenty-seven year old Russian playing at the level she was, Bouchard was always going to have to take her fair share of chances in order to have any sort of shot at pulling off the upset.

Unfortunately for her, those chances produced a plethora of unforced errors and left the Canadian No. 1 in chase mode. Once you combine that with the fact Sharapova was playing what was arguably her finest match of the Open, this one turned into nothing more than a cake walk for the former world No. 1.

No matter what she tried, Bouchard was being pushed around the court and there was very little she could do about it. Her second serve continued to cause her major issues, as did her inability to make any sort of in match adjustments to her approach. Though still a relatively young player, Bouchard will need to improve in both areas if she plans on taking any sort of real run at winning a major in the near future.