Donna Vekic broke the hearts of Canadian at the Rogers Cup Tuesday afternoon. The Croatian gained strength and took the game to Eugenie Bouchard winning 6-3, 6-4 on Centre Court at the Aviva Centre at York University in Toronto. Numerous unforced errors were the downfall of the popular Canadian star who struggled from start to finish.
The two met last year with an up and down three setter that went to the Canadian. With the home court advantage to being the tournament, Bouchard still had to show strength against the 22 year who carries a competitive spirit against some of the best. The Croatian sat on a two-game winning streak to make it into the draw hoping to keep her winning streak alive against a player who needed to put together a forceful output from her game.
Vekic brought a challenging start to the match forcing deuce with Bouchard that lasted two breaks. With the opportunity at hand, Vekic attacked the rally strength of the Canadian to capture the first break. She consolidated more than that against the struggling Canadian as the movements from the 23-year-old were slow when answering the young Croatian. She gained a 3-0 hold in the set forcing Roberto Brogin to come out and speak to the Canadian.
His comments on getting dug in came in the fourth when she ended Vekic’s winning streak on the break that in turn brought cheers from the majority Canadian audience. Vekic followed suit in the fifth maintaining a three-game lead but the pace of breaking one another was kept alive by Bouchard who began her try at reeling in the Croatian. An important service hold ended with a game sitting between one another sending Nikola Horvart out to speak with Vekic to get her back on track during the break.
She gained another victory but Bouchard was still fighting to stay in the set by all means. The Canadian remained on the edge in the ninth with her serve causing trouble at the wrong moment. A double fault on game point allowed Vekic into deuce but she recovered with another chance. A second double fault and the fifth of the set caused Bouchard problems as she watched Vekic rushed the rally. She got into a tug of war on the breaks only to endure the fight and win the set after 44 minutes. Both didn’t have the best offense in the opening set but the second serve of Bouchard’s suffered much more making Vekic’s return game the strongest.
She didn’t show that in the second set as she had the lead but couldn’t hold off her opponent. Bouchard got on the board that soon began a tug of war to determine a leader. Neither one took on the role through the next six games as they matched one another in the race to who would reign victory. By the ninth game, Vekic made the first strike to put pressure on the Canadian who was hanging in the balance but a good chance with the service in her hands. It didn’t help her as the Croatian qualifier stayed tight on the defensive and took the win in the tenth to conclude 1 hour and 34 minutes.
She won’t get an easy pass into the second round as she’ll face former number one Angelique Kerber on Wednesday in what will be her biggest challenge on the horizon.
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