US Open: Eugenie Bouchard, Aleksandra Wozniak In Main Draw

The US Open begins Monday and at least two Montrealers will be in the main draw in Eugenie Bouchard, the tournament’s No. 7 seed and Aleksandra Wozniak.

A third, Francoise Abanda, has reached the final round of qualifying and will face Misa Eguchi of Japan. Her match will be the third match on Court 8. And should see the court around 3:00 p.m. Eastern.

Abanda, 17 years old, has yet to lose a set, winning both her matches against Andreea Mitu and Nao Hibino by a score of 6-1, 6-1.

Abanda is currently ranked 205 in the world but put up a good fight against Dominika Cibulkova at her first Rogers Cup main draw appearance, losing in three sets and wants to make the top 150 by the end of the year. With her performance at qualifying, she has already moved up to a projected minimum of No. 188.

Bouchard, the tournament’s No. 7 seed is facing Olga Govortsova in the first round of the main draw. Bouchard is suffering through her worst patch of the season, losing her second round match in three straight tournaments (Montreal, Cincinnati, New Haven) since Wimbledon and has suffered a couple of injuries.

Her only win came in the first round at New Haven since she received first round byes in the other two events.

After losing to Australia’s Sam Stosur, she said she picked up a knock in training and wasn’t able to recover. It will be interesting if the rest from Wednesday gives her time to find her mojo. Bouncing back for a Grand Slam wouldn’t be new for Bouchard.

She won her final tournament – her first career WTA win – before the French Open, but lost her only match between the French Open and Wimbledon where she made the final. She also lost her first round match in the tournament before Nurnberg where she picked up the win.

Bouchard also lost her first round match before heading to the Australian Open. She is looking to reach the semi-final in all four Grand Slam tournaments this season. She is already the only woman to reach the first three Grand Slam semi-finals.

She reached the second round of the US Open last year.

Wozniak will face No. 31 seed Kurumi Nara in her first round match up. She is currently No. 32 in the world. Wozniak is currently up to No. 97 in the world and this is the first Grand Slam she didn’t need to qualify for. She reached the second round of the US Open last year. Her career best performance was the 3rd round in 2009.

She has yet to make it out of the first round at a Grand Slam main draw this season.