Eighth seed Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland and young gun Eugenie Bouchard of Canada will clash in a blockbuster second round match at the French Open on Thursday. Both women are former French Open semifinalists but are coming off polar opposite results at last year’s event. This match could have major implications on their quarter of the draw.
The match will be the first of the day on court Philippe Chatrier, starting at 11 am local time (5 am ET).
How they got here
The two women had nearly identical first round matches. Both were victorious with the loss of only four games. Bacsinszky cruised past Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-3, 6-1, while Bouchard posted an impressive win over recent Stuttgart finalist Laura Siegemund 6-2, 6-2.
Bacsinszky has had a strong clay court season, claiming a title in Rabat, reaching the third round of Madrid and quarterfinal in Rome. Both of her losses came to higher ranked opponents. Bouchard has struggled a bit, going 3-3 in three events. However, her best result was in Rome when she took out a pair of big opponents, including then-world number two Angelique Kerber, on her was to the third round.
The history
The pair have only played each other once before, earlier this year in Indian Wells when Bacsinszky emerged victorious in a hard-fought 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 second round meeting. Interestingly, the pair have very similar records in 2016, with Bacsinszky having won one more match (19 to 18), but having lost two more (12 to 10). Bouchard has reached two finals while the Swiss won her lone final this year.
Who will control the pattern of play?
This match-up is intriguing because it is fairly obvious who will be the aggressor and who will be the defender in this match before it starts. Bouchard is going to be stepping in and trying to attack while Bacsinszky will be back trying to undermine the Canadian with her gritty defence and variety.
Both women would like to be the one in control. Bacsinszky does not necessarily need to be attacking to do this, but if she manages to keep the Canadian back on or behind the baseline, it will be much harder for Bouchard to attack. It will be very difficult for Bouchard to win if she is not the one controlling rallies. She needs to step up and attack the Swiss, forcing her into defensive positions and garnering weak returns. If Bacsinszky keeps the Canadian from attacking, it will be very tough for the young gun.
Can Bouchard finish points
Everyone knows going into this match that Eugenie Bouchard’s game plan will involve her piling the pressure on her Swiss opponent. But the key for the Canadian will be for her to finish points. Bacsinszky is a fairly scrappy player and can be very difficult to out-grind. Unless the Swiss is off her game and is giving points away, it will be up to Bouchard to finish the points on her own. She can do this by either crushing winners or forcing Bacsinszky into errors, but the fact is that she needs to keep points shorter. The longer the rallies, the bigger the advantage to the eighth seed.
Prediction: Bacsinszky in three sets
At the end of the day, the eighth seed is the stronger clay court player and her game plan works better on this surface. Bouchard did beat a strong clay court player in the last round and will be confident after a close call in their last match, but keeping her level high enough on clay to defeat Bacsinszky while the Swiss is working hard to keep her out of her zone will prove to be a bit too much.