Eugenie Bouchard couldn’t get her tournament started against a tough opponent at the US Open Wednesday. The Canadian watched as Russia’s Evgeniya Rodina dominated from start to finish winning 7-6(2), 6-1 at Arthur Ashe Stadium. It was the first major win for the Russian this season and to have occurred on the biggest stage at the Billy Jean King National Tennis Center. It was the third time in a row that she advance to the second round.
The two haven’t played one another but clearly made it an even competition to start the opening round. Rodina makes her fifth entry into the main draw facing the popular Canadian who has tried very hard to bring her game back together. She put time in at New Haven but couldn’t get deep, losing to Radwanska in her second match. Her on and off game needed to be steady in order to get into some serious competition during the first week of action.
She began the match with a good hold on the Russian allowing a single point. Rodina answered with one of her own and captured two break points in the third against the Canadian to move into the lead. Bouchard delivered a break of her own in the fourth that evened the playing field with the Canadian on point with the ball. They remained on serve through six with Rodina making it a challenging time for Bouchard on both sides of the game. She stayed ahead of the Russian through nine games where she had first dibs on ending the set on the break.
Bouchard couldn’t get it done as the Russian fired off a service hold in the tenth that leveled them to play on. Both still held their own way that made it a very flinching contest to see who would break in the tiebreak. They leveled at two all until the difference of change went to Rodina. The 28-year-old won the next five points to capture the first set putting Bouchard in a hole once again.
The Moscow native had her offense on high serving 79 percent on the first serve and a second well near 90. She helped create more unforced errors for her opponent that made the final game hard to come back from. Rodina gave herself plenty of momentum built after 51 minutes that no doubt would flow into the second.
She did just that after the third when she managed to hold Bouchard and get the break in the fourth that was her second straight. She made three in a row with another good serve that rattled Bouchard to frustration. It was a runaway for Rodina who carried herself to a smooth 5-1 hold serving for the match. The Russian reached two match points on Bouchard where a long rally ended with a final unforced error ending 1 hour and 25 minutes.
“I’m so happy because I played today very good,” Rodina said after the match. “I tried to focus on every single point and play more aggressive so my game needs work today so I’m so happy.” She more than earned the right to be moving on where she’d face world number four Elina Svitolina who she had never beaten before. “She’s a great player,” she said. “I need to play my best tennis, play more aggressive because she pushes every ball hard so I need to be more aggressive and play my game.”
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