Sixth seed Eugenie Bouchard required just over an hour to defeat Kimi Nara of Japan 6-1, 6-2, in the second round of the Malaysian Open.
The Canadian, who is bidding to win her first WTA title since May 2014, got off to a impressive start by clinching three consecutive games before Nara managed to get herself on the scoreboard. The sharp performance by the World No.52 continued as she closed out the first set after 37 minutes of play with her second set point.
Bouchard continued her impressive performance at the start of the second set by breaking her opponent straight away to lead 2-0. The 22-year-old was particularly impressive on her serve throughout the second set, producing five aces and winning 84% of her service points. In comparison Nara produced no aces and only won only 48% of her service points. Bouchard sealed the match with a love service game to clinch the victory after 65 minutes of play.
During her second round triumph, Bouchard converted 4/10 break points and won 86% of her first service points (24/28) to reach her second WTA quarterfinal this year.
Bouchard was on course to play top seed Roberta Vinci in the quarterfinals, however, the Italian suffered a shock straight sets loss to Taipei’s Chang Kai-chen in the first round. The Canadian will now play either the taipei world No.153 or Turkish player Çağla Büyükakçay in the last eight.
In other matches in the tournament, Qiang Wang won her all-Chinese encounter against Ying-Ying Duan. Wang achieved a ranking best of 82nd in February 2015 and has won 10 ITF titles in her career. Despite producing six double faults, Wang edged her way past Duan 6-4, 6-4.
Finally, Slovakian seventh seed Kristina Kucova overcame a second set blip to defeat Su-Wei Hsieh 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to reach her first WTA quarterfinal this year. Prior to her run in Kuala Lumpur this week, the 25-year-old hasn’t won a main draw match on the tour this year.
