Bouchard�s bid for Australian Open spot ends in qualifying
Eugenie Bouchard�s stay at the Australian Open was over in the last round of qualifying.
MELBOURNE (AP) - It was in the shadows of the main show courts at Melbourne Park, days before the first Grand Slam tournament of the season is set to begin in earnest, and Eugenie Bouchard’s stay at the Australian Open was over in the last round of qualifying.
The 2014 Wimbledon runner-up, once as high as No. 5 in the rankings, has had a long slide down to No. 211. She’s had to get used to playing away from packed stadium courts. But a constant echo around the arena on Friday presented something new.
The 25-year-old Canadian survived nearly three hours against China’s You Xiaodi in heavy smoke and haze in the first round of qualifying and advanced through a second-rounder against Maddison Inglis in 65 minutes. With a spot in the main draw on the line, though, Bouchard lost 6-4, 6-3 to Martina Trevisan, a 26-year-old Italian who now will make her debut at a Grand Slam tournament.
“Super tough,” Bouchard said of the loss. “It’s last round of qualies. I felt like I was close.”
Bouchard lost seven straight games from 4-4 in the first set before she rallied and got back to 5-3 in the second, getting plenty of encouragement from a small but supportive crowd. Trevisan held her composure, though, and closed with an ace.
Bouchard said the changing wind and left-handed Trevisan’s different spin were tricky. But one distraction, she said, was just odd.
Every hit of the ball, every noise the players made, could be heard again a half-beat later.
After the third game, Bouchard went to chair umpire Carlos Bernardes to talk about the the noise.
“I said, ‘I don’t know if it’s a speaker, or a TV or what, but I can hear our match, like, half a second after. In the point, I hear us grunting during the point,’” she said. “It was weird.”
The echo — from a giant TV somewhere behind the arena — continued until match point.
“That’s, like, never happened to me before,” Bouchard said.
Still, there’s plenty she’s experiencing now as she tries to work her way back. She’s prepared to deal with it.
“Well, life is not a straight line upward,” she said. “I just take the good with the bad. Sometimes you’ve just got to put your head down and grind, so that’s what I’m trying to do.”
In 2014, Bouchard reached a career-high No. 5 ranking after making the semifinals at the Australian Open and French Open and losing the Wimbledon final to Petra Kvitova.
She made it to the quarterfinals in Australia in 2015 and was into the fourth round at the U.S. Open that September, but had to withdraw because of a concussion she sustained after slipping and falling on wet locker room floor.
