Eugenie Bouchard was on a roll full of positivity and success at the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open Tuesday night. In what was slightly considered an upset, the 24-year-old qualifier kept Timea Babos down in a straight sets win 6-4, 6-2 on Court 1 at the CK Sportcenter. It became the first official win for the Canadian at the tournament and the one helping her advance.
The series stood with the Hungarian who led the series 2-0 over Bouchard but had a slight disadvantage making her debut. The Canadian who makes her fourth appearance, had a three-match winning streak in qualifications and looked to end the year off with a bang. Bouchard almost had a shot at a title back in Gstaad until an injury cut her short of the final there. With confidence always inside the 24-year-old, she would go for a change in the series and also clinch the first round for the first time.
She got the match started with a break of Babos earning it cleanly, but faltered during her own service game. A double fault opened the door for the Hungarian to break back in the second setting the pace for break backs. Bouchard gained a 2-1 lead earning her second over Babos before getting control of her serve to stand at 3-1. The 25-year-old held to keep Bouchard in reach before having the deficit doubled.
During the changeover, Babos took a chat with her coach that helped her counter the returns of the Canadian and reel her back in with a fight on deuce. They spanned two breaks before an error from Bouchard gave Babos another chance to level. The 24-year-old who was being challenged in the set made her hold clear in the eighth frustrating Babos on the returns. She rallied to hold serve in the ninth to get another chance at forcing Bouchard deeper in the set.
The ball was in Bouchard’s hands and knew that she couldn’t give up much in order to secure a hold of the set. The 24-year-old nailed a couple of winners while pressuring Babos in the rallies. When she had two set points in hand, Bouchard scored a sliced ace to end the set in 41 minutes. Despite totaling four double faults, Bouchard had a much stronger first serve indicating her push for points assured across the court. It took down Babos who showed signs of fighting back but couldn’t load up on more wins.
She tried to make good on starting on a clean slate winning a hold of serve but her problems made it easy for Bouchard to conduct an easy service game in the second. Babos struggled on serve in the third handing the 24-year-old a break up which caused her to call out her coach who told her what she had to do to make her adversary struggle. She attacked the serve of Bouchard earning three break points and held on to one of them to level the score.
The Canadian broke back to regain the lead and opened the door to increase her margin. She cemented the break with a service hold in the sixth where Babos inability to get to the shot irritated her to the point of smashing her racket. It was all downhill for the 25-year-old as she blew her service game in the seventh with Bouchard in position to win her fourth match in a row.
Babos erred on two returns while the 24-year-old stayed calm and focused across the court. She gained three match points where the win came on a final mistake from Babos on the second serve to watch it fall long ending 1 hour and 12 minutes.
With many elements of her game going together, Bouchard has the chance to go five straight if she gets past Carla Suarez Navarro on Wednesday.
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