Montrealer Eugenie Bouchard loses Guadalajara Open to Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo

GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Eugenie Bouchard’s hopes for a second career WTA title have been dashed.

The Montrealer fell to Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-2, 7-5 at the Guadalajara Open, a WTA 250-level tournament, in Mexico Saturday night. Bouchard sought her first tournament win since 2014 when she won the Nuremberg Cup in Germany.

Bouchard dropped the first set, but had a chance to win the second when she was up 5-3. But the Canadian would go on to lose the next four games, ultimately losing the final.

“That was super frustrating,” Bouchard said. “I felt like I was playing 12-and-under tennis at some points there. I don’t know. She was just outgrinding me. I shouldn’t have lost four games in a row like that at the end. Sometimes I didn’t know what to do.”

Bouchard won the first game of the match, but it was Sorribes Tormo who was up a break in the first set. Sorribes Tormo took a 3-1 lead in the opening set before Bouchard fought back to win a game. The Spaniard would later win the next three games to win the first set.

Sorribes Tormo would open the second set by winning the first game. Bouchard would draw even, but she’d lose yet another break point to go down 2-1. Bouchard wouldn’t be down long, however, as she clawed back to take a 5-3 lead in the set. But she couldn’t hold the lead.

Sorribes Tormo defeated Bouchard in less than two hours.

Last Sunday, Bouchard lost the doubles final of the Lyon Open. She says she then spent the next 35 hours travelling to Guadalajara arriving Monday night to play Tuesday as a wildcard.

The 27-year-old lost just one set during her run to the final, her very first set of the tournament against American Caroline Dolehide. She later defeated Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto in the semifinals of the Guadalajara Open, needing a tiebreak to win the second set. Saturday’s appearance was her eighth career WTA Tour singles final appearance.

It capped off a very busy week for Bouchard.

“Somehow I made the finals. I really don’t know how this happened,” Bouchard said.

Bouchard was once ranked as high as fifth in the world among tennis players. She attained that ranking in 2014 when she won her first career title, reached the Wimbledon final, and made the Australian Open and French Open semifinals. Her form suffered after that, falling as far down as 332nd last March.

Since that personal low, she has inched closer and closer to the top 100. The Canadian will jump from 144th-ranked to 116th after her final loss.

“I feel like the work I’ve put in over the last year or so is finally coming to fruition a little bit. I just feel like I need to give myself more chances. The more tournaments I play, the more chances I can give myself to win matches and hopefully titles.” Bouchard said.

Bouchard will return to action in the upcoming Monterrey Open. She will play against Zhu Lin in a Round of 32 match Monday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 13, 2021.

The Canadian Press