US OPEN

[CR25] Eugenie Bouchard (CAN) vs. [CR50] Dominika Cibulkova (SVK)

Bouchard and Cibulkova are both trying to recover their “A” game.  They arrived at the same point, but their paths there were very different. Injury requiring surgery caused Cibulkova’s ranking to drop and she is now trying to play her way back into top form.  Bouchard’s ranking dropped due to an injury of sorts; however, nothing that could be fixed by surgery.  It is the area of the sport that no one likes to talk about, at least not openly; however, it remains one of the factors that can significantly impact a player’s game if not their entire tennis career. Why are some players more mentally vulnerable than others?  Is there one specific thing that causes a player to succumb psychologically or is it a combination of factors?

Did the expectations become too much for Bouchard? Only Bouchard can tell us why she has struggled to find the form that saw her reach the semifinals of the 2014 Australian and French Open and also the Wimbledon Final.  This season Bouchard has had trouble simply getting out of the first round.  Is this new surge in confidence a result of her new affiliation with the legendary Jimmy Connors? Perhaps Bouchard had been slowly finding her form and the recent addition of Connors to her team just coincides with the positive results we are seeing at the US Open? Whatever the reason, Bouchard is looking more confident and this is being reflected in her results.  She is into the fourth round after two difficult three set matches. Today she bounced back again after dropping the second set to win 7-6(9), 4-6, 6-3. How far can she go?