Eugenie Bouchard’s education in tennis is growing by leaps and bounds. Today at the Family Circle Cup, she played Venus Williams and survived a two-hour-and-15-minute, knock-down, drag-out match, 7-6 (6), 2-6, 6-4.
If you watched this one, you might still be wondering how Bouchard pulled it off. The short answer: By rallying her game when Williams seemed to be utterly in control and playing bold, aggressive, error-free tennis when it most mattered. It was somewhat unexpected, given that from the start of the second set until midway through the third, Williams was in command, hitting crisp shots backed with athleticism that enabled her to stay in rallies, even when Bouchard was trying to get up off the mat.
The bottom line about Bouchard’s success is that it’s made of the stuff you just can’t teach.
Williams is 33 years old, and at No. 11 she was seeded five notches below Bouchard. But this still seemed like an upset when you tally up all the circumstantial details, starting with the experience gap.
The first set was a topsy-turvy affair, highlighting Bouchard’s precociously craft play and Williams’ toughness. Bouchard recorded the first break in the third game, but Williams began challenging the young Canadian’s serve in the subsequent games.
By the eighth game, Bouchard had to fend off a break point with a cross-court, third-ball forehand that Venus barely got her racquet on. Bouchard managed to hold for 5-3, but Williams was getting her big, booming groundstrokes dialed in, and her legs kept her in the rallies.
Bouchard served for the set twice, at 5-4 and again at 6-5, but her failure to close the deal could not be laid entirely at the feet of youth. Williams was forcing the action and her groundstrokes were falling deeper and deeper in Bouchard’s court. But the 20-year-old hung in there, even as Williams twice denied her the set and then earned a 2-1, mini-break lead in the tiebreaker.
Bouchard quickly got the mini-break back thanks to a Williams double-fault, but she immediately made a forehand error to surrender the advantage once again. Williams returned that one, too, when she made a terrible forehand volley error at 5-3, but she then blasted a backhand service return that Bouchard could only drive into the net in reply. Williams was up 6-4 and the set appeared lost for Bouchard.