Eugenie Bouchard produced her best performance of the tournament to completely overwhelm Angelique Kerber and book her spot in a first French Open quarter-final and second consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final. Bouchard needed just 52 MINUTES to complete a comprehensive 6-1 6-2 victory over an out-of-sorts Kerber. Bouchard came out swinging from the first point and maintained her accuracy throughout the whole match. Off both sides, she hit plenty of winners and finished with 30 winners to only 11 unforced errors.
This was a disappointing performance from Kerber. It was hard for her to get involved early on as Bouchard played a near-perfect first set of tennis. However she looked completely overwhelmed in the second set. It would have been nice to see her have a swing in the second set because the match was slipping through her grasps at such a rapid rate. Kerber also hit too many errors, just one less than Genie. Her second serve was frequently pounded by Bouchard and she won just 28% of second serve points. In the matches I have seen Kerber play this year, she seems to have a lost a little of the fight and confidence on court she had a few years ago when she was scrapping for wins. In 2012, she was consistently making the latter stages of tournament and winning the majority of her three setters. This year, Kerber has won just four of ten three set matches.
This was a remarkably clean performance from Bouchard. Watching her play, her strokes are a little jolty (yes, that’s a technical term haha), but she is so effective in hitting the lines. Well, she certainly was today. I feel she has become more aggressive on court this year and it is paying dividends, particularly in her performances at the Grand Slams. Genie is a big match player and she proved that today. She will play Carla Suarez Navarro or Ajla Tomljanovic in the quarter-finals.