Eugenie Bouchard, opening the final tournament of her career, earned a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 win over Emiliana Arango on Monday in her hometown event, the National Bank Open in Montreal.
Bouchard, 31, plans to retire after the current event. She was ranked as high as No. 5 in the world in 2014, when she reached the final at Wimbledon and the semifinals at the Australian Open and the French Open.
The crowd was firmly behind the veteran Canadian player.
“It was electric out there,” Bouchard said. “I had so much fun. I’m so proud of how I competed and stayed focused throughout the whole match and fought. It was a physical battle, a mental battle, and it just felt amazing to play in Montreal in front of everyone.”
Bouchard advanced to a second-round match against 17th-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.
In a lengthy first-round battle between two players from Germany, Laura Siegemund came out on top over Tatjana Maria.
Similar to their three-set thriller in 2023 at Warsaw, Siegemund came away with the victory. This time, she prevailed 7-5, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (2) despite Maria earning eight aces to her one — and registering seven double faults to Maria’s three during their nearly 3 1/2-hour match.
Great Britain’s Emma Raducanu, ranked No. 33 in the world, eased into the second round with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse.
Coming off a trip to the semifinals in last week’s DC Open, Raducanu staved off five break points in her opening service game before winning the last five games to close out the first set. She then earned a crucial break to take a 5-4 lead in the second before serving out for the match.
“Elena is a good friend of mine and it’s difficult to play someone you know, but I’m happy with how I put that to one side,” Raducanu said, per Sky Sports. “It’s also good to back up a good week last week in DC.”
Russian qualifier Kamilla Rakhimova lost the first set to 20-year-old Canadian wild card Kayla Cross before finding her groove and finishing out the last two sets to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in just under two hours. Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva also needed three sets to defeat China’s Wang Yafan, 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-4.
Japan’s Naomi Osaka topped Canadian qualifier Ariana Arseneault 6-4, 6-2.
Hailey Baptiste, Russia’s Anna Blinkova, New Zealand’s Lulu Sun, Czechia’s Marie Bouskova, Germany’s Eva Lys, China’s Guo Hanya, Mexico’s Renata Zarazua and 34-year-old Canadian Rebecca Marino each earned straight-set triumphs.
Other winners were Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti, Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova, Croatia’s Antonia Ruzic and Greece’s Maria Sakkari.
–Field Level Media
