Bouchard reaches quarter-finals in Taiwan

Former world No.5 Eugenie Bouchard is into the last eight of the Taiwan Open after a hard-fought straight sets win over Romania's Ana Bogdan.

Eugenie Bouchard.

Eugenie Bouchard's last-eight appearance in Taiwan will be her first quarter-final in nine months. (AAP)

Eugenie Bouchard has reached the quarter-finals of a WTA event for the first time since May following a 7-5 7-5 victory over Ana Bogdan at the Taiwan Open.

The 23-year-old, a former top-five player and 2014 Wimbledon finalist, has struggled in recent years and only managed 13 wins on the circuit in the whole of last season.

As a result, Bouchard has dropped to 121 in the world rankings and needed a wildcard to enter the competition, but the Canadian rediscovered some form in Taipei City during the second-round clash.

Both players struggled with their service games but after six successive breaks, Bouchard eventually held in the 12th game to take the opening set.

Bogdan responded by winning the first two games to lead the second set 2-0, but the Canadian hit back to win five of the next six games and looked on course for a comfortable win.

However, the Romanian clinched the next two games to level at 5-5, only for Bouchard to break back before sealing victory on her fifth match point to advance to her first last-eight appearance since the Madrid Open.

The Canadian will face Yafan Wang for a place in the semi-finals after the Chinese player defeated eighth seed Pauline Parmentier 6-3 6-3.

Magda Linette was forced into a final-set tie-break against Sweden's Johanna Larsson before the seventh seed prevailed with a 6-1 6-7 (7-4) 7-6 (7-3) success.

Fourth seed Timea Babos also needed three sets to see off Slovakia's Dalila Jakupovic in a 6-3 4-6 6-2 win.


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Published 2 February 2018 2:12am
Source: AAP

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