Eugenie Bouchard Beats Simona Halep, Into Wimbledon Final
By Jared Book
Eugenie Bouchard has continued her great run at Wimbledon as she moves on to her first Grand Slam final, defeating No. 3 seed Simona Halep 7-6 (5), 6-2 in straight sets.
Bouchard has yet to lose a set in the tournament and won five straight games in the second set after Halep held serve in the opening game to open a 5-1 lead. After two breaks, Halep finally held serve to force Bouchard to serve for the match.
Bouchard, the 2012 Wimbledon Girls champion, is the fastest junior champion to return to the senior final at Wimbledon. Martina Hingis, the 1993 and 1994 champion made the senior final in 1997. Other finalists who won the Junior title were Amelie Mauresmo (1996 Junior champion, 2006 Wimbledon champion) and Agnieszka Radwanska (2005 Junior champion, 2012 Wimbledon finalist).
It was dominance in the second set for Bouchard. She won 46% of points on Halep’s serve in the match and won 3/9 break points, including 2/6 in the second set. She is the first Canadian to reach a Grand Slam final in the Open Era.
Waiting next will be Petra Kvitova, the No. 6 seed. Both players are going for their first Grand Slam victory. It will be the second time they will meet. They met at last year’s Rogers Cup in Toronto. Kvitova won in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2.
With the win, Bouchard now will be a minimum of No. 7 in the World. She passed Angelique Kerber who she beat in the quarterfinal. Should she beat Kvitova, she will pass Maria Sharapova for No. 6 in the World. Kvitova is guaranteed to be the No. 4 player no matter what happens in Saturday’s final.
Bouchard made her first Grand Slam final after losing her previous two trips to the semi-finals this year at the Australian and French Opens.
As someone who has followed Bouchard’s career since her 2012 Wimbledon win, it is surprising to me – not that she reached this level, but how quickly she did it. She is only 20 years old and has not even reached her prime yet.
It will be very interesting to see how she does in the final on Saturday. She is 1-1 in her career in finals but Wimbledon is a different animal.
The final is scheduled for 8:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. If you missed the semi-final, it will be replayed on TSN2 tonight at 8:00 p.m.