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Eugenie Bouchard stayed focused to earn her best match win at the Ladies Championship Gstaad on Friday. The 24-year-old got through a tough first set before coasting in the second to win against Veronika Kudermetova 7-5, 6-0 on court at Roy Emerson Arena. It was the first Bouchard won three matches in a tournament since the Madrid Open last season.
This was the second straight qualifier that Bouchard has faced and so far, has played just enough to keep her tournament hopes alive. The Canadian held off Golubic in straight set tiebreaks hoping to get through the Russian in a stronger way. Kudermetova hasn’t yet faced an experienced player like Bouchard since the round of 16 at Hertogenbosch but would give it her all to try and stay level.
Bouchard opened up a two-game lead but watched her opponent pull together the same feat. After the fourth game with things back to level pegging, Kudermetova regained her chance to conduct a strategy to control the set. Bouchard made sure she wouldn’t give the Russian another game by holding serve in the fifth. She had a chance for break point but let up enough for Kudermetova to get back some control and hold.
She broke the Canadian in the seventh which led Bouchard to call out her coach to receive some ideas on how to counteract while strengthening her game. The Russian looked to get a double break in hand in the eighth but her serve fell apart at the wrong time getting Bouchard leveled at four apiece. A solid hold from the 24-year-old earned her the lead and a chance to go for the set against the Russian.
Kudermetova's attempts to play aggressively didn’t go well to start but with some focus, she managed to overcome the early problems and hold off Bouchard to move the set further. Bouchard made it her mission to block Kudermetova from getting any more ground on her and broke her in the 11th to set up another try at the set.
With the pressure on her opponent, Bouchard laid down a final strike that got her to stand a set up after 51 minutes While her main return was struggling, she had a way to staying in the rallies to be in the position she was in early in the match.
She took it to her advantage and laid down a fifth ace before succeeding at her first serve to love. Kudermetova came up to serve in the second but faltered handing the Canadian a triple break win. After yet another loss, Kudermetova called for the trainer to deal with a thigh muscle strain. She took a medical timeout to have her left thigh taped up before resuming play where she again lost control of serve.
Bouchard was coasting to victory adding serve to love on Kudermetova's returns that landed long. The Russian was on the edge of defeat and with her muscle strain still causing her trouble, she dropped the game and took the bagel to conclude her tournament after 84 minutes.
Kudermetova had very little coming with the injury, landing six shots on 20 attempts from the service. Bouchard had a flawless run through the set not losing one point on serve. While it was heavily in her favor due to her opponent's struggles, she would have a lot to be positive as she'll await the winner between Samantha Stosur and Alize Cornet in Saturday's semifinal.
