Internazionali BNL D’Italia, Rome

[2] Angelique Kerber (GER) vs. [46] Eugenie Bouchard (CAN)

Regaining your confidence once you have lost it is never easy.  To believe in yourself despite repeated losses requires tremendous inner strength.  We have seen players unravel mentally/emotionally and never recover.  We have also seen some of the great players go through periods where their confidence was low and they had to battle their own internal demons to find their way back to the confident player they used to be.  If the period of low self-confidence is prolonged, it is extremely hard to rebuild without the intervention of a professional therapist.  You must learn to manage the triggers that erode your confidence going forward otherwise you will continue to struggle mentally/emotionally on court.

 It is not easy and you cannot hide on the tennis court.  Millions of people are watching you struggle and somehow you have to be strong enough to ignore that and focus on the match at hand.  As a fan you watch with bated breath hoping that the payer will regain the form that captivated you when you first noticed their game.  Bouchard was fearless and attacked every ball with conviction that she was going to win the point.  I have watched her struggle to regain that belief and today she took a huge step forward when she fought back to defeat Kerber  6-1, 5-7, 7-5.

[16] Ana Ivanovic (SRB) vs. [56] Christina McHale (USA)

McHale has never defeated Ivanovic in four previous encounters.  This victory was a testament of the hard work she has been doing behind the scenes to recover from her bout with Infectious Mononucleosis.  This was a hard fought but well deserved victory for the American.  She moves on to the third round with the 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-1 upset of Ivanovic.