Canadian Eugenie Bouchard eliminated in third round at French Open

PARIS — Canadian wild-card entry Eugenie Bouchard’s best Grand Slam since 2017 is over after a third-round loss at the French Open on Friday.

Polish teenager Iga Swiatek advanced to the fourth round of the clay-court Grand Slam for the second consecutive year with a 6-3, 6-2 win over the Canadian.

“I felt like I played a very good opponent,” Bouchard said. “She was putting pressure on me from the beginning. I tried to counter that and tried to put pressure back. But I was missing my shots by small margins and making some mistakes I haven’t really made in recent matches. I definitely felt a little off today.”

Bouchard, from Westmount, Que., made it to the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2017 Australian Open.

Ranked 168th in the world, Bouchard got a wild-card into the French Open after reaching the final at a clay-court tournament in Istanbul last month.

A former world No. 5 after reaching the Wimbledon final in 2014, Bouchard’s ranking has tumbled in recent years.

Leylah Annie Fernandez of Laval, Que., is the lone Canadian remaining in the singles draw. She’ll face No. 7 seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in the third round on Saturday.

The 19-year-old Swiatek has lost only 13 games so far at Roland Garros and not dropped a set. She opened her campaign with a first-round upset of 2019 French Open finalist Marketa Vondrousova.

Swiatek hit 30 winners and converted six of her 13 break points against Bouchard.

The 54th-ranked Swiatek lost to 2018 champion Simona Halep in the fourth round last year in her Roland Garros debut. She also made the fourth round at this year’s Australian Open.

Swiatek is the daughter of a former Olympic rower. Tomasz Swiatek rowed in the quadruple sculls at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

In women’s doubles second-round play, the fifth-seeded team of Gabriela Dabrowksi of Ottawa and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia beat Monica Niculescu of Romania and Misaki Doi of Japan 6-4, 2-6, 7-5.

Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil and American Jack Sock had their second-round men’s doubles postponed until Saturday.

— With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2020

The Canadian Press