French Open Roundup: Eugenie Bouchard Advances, Aleksandra Wozniak Falls
By Jared Book
It was a mixed bag of results for Montreal natives Eugenie Bouchard and Aleksandra Wozniak at the French Open in their first round matches.
Bouchard, the tournaments No. 18 seed and No. 16 in the world, defeated Israel’s Shahar Peer in straight sets 6-0, 6-2 to record her second ever win at the Grand Slam event. She finished the action off in a 59 minutes that was interrupted by rain.
She is coming off of her first ever WTA win in Nuremberg which is also on clay. In her second round matchup she will face Julia Goerges of Germany. They are the first match on Court 7 tomorrow which gets underway at 11 a.m. in Paris or 5 a.m. Eastern.
Goerges is the No. 107 player in the world. The two have never played each other before.
Aleksandra Wozniak had to win three matches just to reach the main draw of the French Open, but was unable to beat Sorana Circea, the tournament’s No. 26 seed in a 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-2 loss.
Wozniak took an early lead against Circea. She won the first set in a tiebreak and had two break points to lead 5-3 in the second.
At 5-4, Wozniak held a match point on Cirstea’s serve, but was unable to finish off the break. The Romanian went on to win nine of the last twelve games.
Wozniak made the fourth round of the French Open in 2009 but had suffered through injuries over the last year and is working her way back up the rankings. The WTA rankings are a rolling points total for the past year.
Although six Canadians entered the Singles main draw, only two advanced past the first round – Bouchard and Milos Raonic on the men’s side. Sharon Fichman, Vasek Pospisil and Peter Polansky were the others to compete.