Eugenie Bouchard's miserable form continued as she lost in straight sets to Elina Svitolina in a tightly fought second round encounter that saw the Ukranian emerge the 7-6(6) 7-5 victor. 

After a confidence boosting win against Kateryna Bondarenko in the first round, the Canadian, now ranked 24, headed into the match looking for her first back-to-back wins since Indian Wells back in March. However against in-form Svitolina she fell just short of the victory, after two close sets. After racing ahead to a 2-0 lead in the first set, Bouchard was unable to see out the set without dropping serve as they headed into a tie-break to decide the first set.

A tough-fought battle

With a set point at 6-5 in the tie-break, Bouchard was unable to serve it out dropping the next two points bringing up a set point for Svitolina which the Ukrainian took. Whilst the first set had only two breaks, the second set was to have seven breaks. Saving match points to level up the match at 5-5 in the set, Bouchard was unable to do the same at 5-6, with Svitolina taking the second set 7-5 to move on to the next round.

Svitolina now leads Bouchard 3-0 in their head-to-head

It's been an impressive year for Svitolina who is now at a career high ranking of 15. After winning her third career title in Marrakech earlier this year, she has been consistently making deep runs into tournaments and a next trophy should not be too far away for the 20-year-old. As for Bouchard, her disappointing year continues as she experiences 'second season syndrome' after a breakout year in 2014 which saw her reach semi-finals in both the Australian Open and the French Open before reaching the final of Wimbledon helping contribute to a career high ranking of fifth in the world. Since reaching the quarter-finals of the Australian this year, the Canadian has not made it past the last 16 of any tournament.

Whilst the results have not improved for the 21-year-old recently, the performances definitely have and she will not be too discouraged with last night’s loss. Next up for the Canadian is the Connecticut Open in New Haven in which she reached the second round last year. Svitolina will face Caroline Garcia in the third round after the Frenchwoman beat Petra Kvitova in three sets 7-5, 4-6, 6-2.

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