Eugenie Bouchard put on a schooling early on before facing some adversity at the Australian Open. Despite attempts from Louisa Chirico in the second set, the Canadian held on to a straight sets victory beating the American 6-0, 6-4 at Margaret Court Arena Monday night. With cheers from her Canadian supporters, the 22 year old captured her fourth first round win of her career and 11th overall.
Both never faced each other before and have an even chance coming into the first round. While the American struggled at both Brisbane and Sydney, her Canadian counterpart has shown tremendous progress. The recent acquisition by her getting Tomas Högstedt on her side allowed her to go into the Apia International taking down two big names along the way. Despite losing to Johanna Konta, it was apparent that the 22-year-old was up for another challenge with her army behind her.
She easily took a 3-0 lead on Chirico due to the early jitters that came from her play on court. The third nearly turned into a shutout for the American but an ace saved her the bagel but not from getting on the board. 12 minutes had surpassed and Bouchard was on a runaway with her hold of serve in the fourth showing good defensive returns in the rallies. The winners were racking up in her favor hitting away from Chirico who wasn’t playing up to par. It was another break of serve for Bouchard who had three straight with a chance for the bagel and the sixth going on.
The world number 47 got to set point in a dominant show of force that ended with just another unforced error from the American closing things out in 18 minutes. Despite dropping nine of her shots on the opening serve, the Canadian’s perfection on the second saved her with help from Chirico’s dismal show on points won on the return.
Things livened up for the American to start the second showing a better stance against Bouchard to win by two game points. It was a short stint for Chirico who went back to taking the brunt of force that Bouchard once again laid out on court. She held serve followed by a fourth break of serve that led to another dominant show of force. Despite the tremendous adversity and the little time left on court, Chirico gained a second break of serve on the Canadian to push up another game to her end.
Contention for the American started coming together in the shape of her first hold of serve in the match. The new winning streak had her down a game in the seventh hoping to turn things around and force a third set. She couldn’t hold off Bouchard in the eighth who knew that dropping another game wasn’t acceptable to start her opening round. She answered with a hold on serve that put her another step out front.
Chirico managed to win a fourth game from the Canadian but saw the end coming with Bouchard back on serve for the match. It was put away with one last fight from the American but a forehand unforced error brought her to a screeching halt handing the 22-year-old Montreal native a place in the second round finishing it in 55 minutes. Bouchard made improvements on her offense with the second serve still carrying the majority. Her 22 winners on the night outplayed the American who nearly had twice as many errors as Bouchard.
While the 20-year-old prepares for her next future match, Bouchard and her army of supporters get set for her second round match against Shuai Peng of China
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