After having disappointing showings at both the Rogers Cup and the Western and Southern Open in her post-Wimbledon return to action, Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard got back in the winning column on Monday evening at the Connecticut Open in New Haven.

The three-time Grand Slam semi-finalist needed all of 52 minutes to run over Serbian Bojana Jovanovski 6-1 and 6-1 to advance to the next round of the US Open warm-up event. While Bouchard had struggled mightily to find her game since working her way through the Women’s Draw at the All England Club, the twenty year old finally started to resemble the dominating force tennis fans had grown accustomed to seeing.

The No. 35 player in the world was no match for the Canadian Number 1, as Bouchard was in complete control from the very start and showed absolutely no mercy on her overmatched opponent. The young Canadian not only broke Jovanovski’s serve on six separate occasions but also managed to win twenty-eight of forty-two points on her own serve. While those numbers are solid, they are far from dominant but considering her level of play of late. However, it was a massive step forward for the No. 8 player in the world.

With the victory, Bouchard will now take on Australian Samantha Stosur in round number two, who knocked off Japan’s Kurumi Nara in three tough sets 7-6(5), 6-7((10), 6-2 earlier in the day. At thirty years of age, Stosur is a WTA Tour vet and will be far from a push over. She is coming off a Round of 16 showing at Roland Garros and is currently seeded No. 25 in the rankings.

After losing to unseeded Shelby Hunter in Montreal and Svetlana Kuznetsova in Cincinnati, players who are at complete opposite ends of the spectrum, no one really knows what to expect out of the number 3 seed in New Haven. With that said, something tells this author that Bouchard will use this somewhat watered down pool to her advantage as a springboard to another impressive performance at the final Grand Slam event of the year.

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About the author
Rob Soria
Rob covers the ATP Tour and Toronto Blue Jays for VAVEL USA