The only time Eugenie Bouchard and Lucie Safarova had played each other was at the Hopman Cup last year. The Czech had easily won the match in straight sets. Today was a quite different story. Bouchard indeed took her revenge over Safarova after 2 hours and 13 minutes of play.
Bouchard breaks early and takes the opening set 6-3
Despite winning the toss, Safarova elected to receive first. It didn't disurb the local player who showed some great skills straight from the first game. In contrast to the Canadian, the Czech started off really slowly with only 20% of first serves in her opening service game. Bouchard really took her chances on every second serve and offered herself an early break that she went on to consolidate to take a 3-0 lead. Safarova served better in her second service game and allowed herself to take the plunge into her match.
At 4-2 up, Safarova displayed some great qualities to get the break back. Serving with new balls, Safarova committed some silly unforced errors to hand another break to her opponent. Bouchard made no mistake while serving for the set at 5-3 up. She eventually won the opening set 6-3 to the delight of the Canadian crowd.
Safarova reacts strongly and takes a lethal break to level up the match to one set all
In the second set, Safarova was the first player to serve. It seemed to help her a bit as she found herself up on the scoreboard during the whole set. The Czech returned way better than in the first set which allowed her to put Bouchard into danger straight from her opening service game.
She snatched a lethal break at 1-0 up and went on to confirm her advance to take a 3-0 lead, just like Bouchard did in the first set. From that moment, both players served very strongly and didn't manage to worry each other on their return games. Consequently, Safarova managed to keep her one and only break until the end of this set and hence forced a decider by taking the set 6-3.
After a marathon set, Bouchard shines in the final tiebreak to win her first Rogers Cup match since 2013
After a bathroom break, Genie came back on the court as motivated as ever. Both players started off the set strongly, unlike the previous ones. The first three games of the set were held to love thanks to big serves. Bouchard and Safarova displayed some great variations on their serves, including some flat aces on the T or tricky sliced aces. Safarova was the first player to lose a point on her serve, in the 4th game of the set. The Czech didn't manage to worry the Canadian once on her serve in the decider. Her return game was really sloppy from A to Z which allowed Bouchard to hold easily until the last game of the match.
Unlike her opponent, the Canadian showed more resilience on her return games. At 5-4 up, Bouchard led 0-30 and hit a tremendous forehand to get three match points in a row. Lucie reacted like a champion by hitting her first two aces of the match to save the game and hold to 5-5. The match eventually ended in a final set tiebreak which was filled with ups and downs. Safarova took the first minibreak and managed to take a 3-1 lead.
Bouchard then put some pressure on the second serve of Safarova and fired a wonderful return winner to level up the tiebreak to 3-3. Towards the end, the Canadian won a very important point with a stunning passing shot winner. She eventually won the last six points of the tiebreak to snatch the win 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(3) after 2 hours and 13 minutes.
A look at the final stats
In this thriller match, Safarova mainly made the game. She hit more winners (31 to 23) but she hit way more unforced errors (38 to 21), which certainly cost her the match. At the end of the day, Eugenie Bouchard secures her spot in the second round of the Rogers Cup where she could potentially meet the in-form Dominika Cibulkova.
