BNP Paribas WTA Finals, Singapore

Round Robin, Day 3: [CR5] Eugenie Bouchard (CAN) vs. [CR7] Ana Ivanovic (SRB)

It was another performance marred by anxiety for Bouchard. Bouchard could not relax enough to make her shots when it mattered. Every shot was rushed and even she was amazed when some landed in as she was caught flat-footed on numerous occasions, thinking the shot had gone out again.

Bouchard does not realize that she needs to go to plan “B”, as her attacking style of play, plan “A”, has gone awry.  She is either too stubborn or too nervous to make the change.  Ivanovic kept the ball in play because she knew that Bouchard would make the error, and she was rewarded in the first set, winning it easily 6-1.

Though Bouchard  competed better in the second set, there was not much conviction that she could turn the match around.  She was too tense from anxiety, was not moving well, her swing was not fluid, and her opponent was keeping her under pressure on every point.  Bouchard knows that she is anxious and that her game has become compromised by her fragile mental state; what she needs to do on the off season is figure out how to better control her emotional/psychological response. There were too many opportunities to get back into the match and she squandered most of them, finally losing to Ivanovic 1-6, 3-6.