The young Canadian outlasts Dominika Cibulkova 76(9) 46 63 to reach round four, showing huge improvements in her game.
This time around last year Eugenie Bouchard and Dominika Cibulkova were playing the US Open coming from the best seasons of their careers. Bouchard had reached at least the semifinal in all the previous three Grand Slams tournaments, with the highlight being the final lost at Wimbledon against Petra Kvitova. She had climbed to number five in the world and was often regarded by the press as the next Maria Sharapova. Dominika Cibulkova had been in the final of the Australian Open and in the semis in Miami and she had broken into the top 10 for the first time in her career.
One year later, for different reasons, both players are failing to live up to the expectations those results had built on them. Bouchard is living a technical crisis, probably overwhelmed by the amount of attentions and responsibilities her new star-status has brought on her. Cibulkova too went through a lack of results in the second part of last season, before having to take a 4-months break to undergo surgery on her left Achilles heel.
This third round could therefore be the start of the comeback to the top for both of them. The two players have a similar game, both playing a very aggressive, modern tennis from the baseline based on powerful shots and on trying to hit a winner whenever there’s the chance to do so.
In the first set Bouchard goes down a break, 2-4, only to recover the very next game thanks to a double-fault by Cibulkova on the break point. From then on both players will hold their serves till the tiebreak, with Cibulkova saving a breakpoint on 5-all and with the Canadian player managing to erase two set points down 5-6, 15-40. The credit (or fault?) actually has to go entirely to Cibulkova, who was able to miss two fairly easy shots after having dominated the point. The set is then forced into a tiebreak that exposes all of the mental weaknesses the Slovakian has often showed during her career: she wastes three set points, one with a double-fault, another one with an incredible forehand volley error right above the net and the last one saved by a forehand winner by Bouchard, who goes on to win the tiebreak eleven points to nine. The level of the set has been mostly high as stats show: 15 winners to 11 unforced errors for Bouchard, that finally displayed again some of that reactivity and timing that led her into the top 5, and 15 winners to 16 unforced errors for Cibulkova, who’s been guilty of not being able to grab her chances.
The second set follows the same schizophrenic pattern as the tiebreak: Bouchard goes up 3-1 playing some inspired tennis with Cibulkova looking on the verge of giving up. But you can never count the Slovakian out, especially when she feels like she has nothing to lose, because it’s in those moments that she often shows what she is truly capable of. She goes on to win five of the following six games, conquering the set six games to four and managing to hold her nerves when serving for the set.
The first critical moment in the decider, after a quick exchange of breaks right at the beginning, comes in the fourth game: Cibulkova serves down 1-2 and has six chances to level up the score, but after 11 minutes she is forced to hand the break to Bouchard, who then plays an almost perfect game hitting two winners and an ace to hold the service game to love, extending the lead to 4-1. From then on it is just ordinary administration, with Cibulkova being able to take just another two points off Bouchard serve, who wins the decider six games to three after 2 hours and 47 minutes of intense fight.
The Canadian player played some brilliant tennis tonight, showing great improvements in her defensive skills and hitting winners all over the court without being affected by the pressure of reaching the second week of a Slam. She’s now going to face Roberta Vinci in round four, in a rematch of the one happened in New Haven last week, when the Italian left her only one game.
