Montreal’s Eugenie Bouchard had a considerable challenge in the first round of the Omnium Agel on Tuesday in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
The former world no. of game.
After 68 minutes, Genie won a very tight first set, in the tiebreaker.
Bouchard had managed to climb into the main draw by winning two qualifying matches, notably against the 5e favorite et 87e world player, the Hungarian Dalma Galfi.
The 2014 Wimbledon runner-up has been showing some interesting signs since returning to action in August after a year and a half away.
Serving for the match at 5-4 in the final set, Bencic got hot by conceding two break points to the Canadian, who was unable to take advantage of it to prolong the suspense.
For the entire game, Bouchard had 36 winners, including six aces. She totaled 25 unforced errors.
Bouchard will be back in action next week, having received a bye from the organizers of the Cluj-Napoca tournament in Romania.
Kasatkina defeats Raducanu
Daria Kasatkina defeated Emma Raducanu 7-5, 6-4 to reach the second round at the Ostrava Omnium.
The fifth seed, Kasatkina had a 4-2 break advantage against Raducanu, queen of Flushing Meadows in 2021.
The two players faced each other for the very first time. Raducanu made 28 unforced errors, 12 more than her rival.
Kasatkina was playing her first game since her first-round loss in New York. Her next rival will be a fellow Russian, Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Aliaksandra Sasnovich, ranked 31st in the world, upset eighth seed Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 6-2.
