Eugenie Bouchard saves 9 break points in win over Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova. Former World ranked No.5 Canadian Eugenie Bouchard came back from a 2-5 final set deficit and later from match point down to dispatch resurgent and very tough oponet Latvian Anastasija Sevastova, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(4) in the first round of the Qatar Total Open.
The 22-year-old Bouchard, reached as high as world number 5 in October 2014, the year when she reached the final of Wimbledon before losing to Petra Kvitova, is now ranked 61st on the WTA Tour.
Bouchard is staging a comeback this year after giving a walkover in the fourth round of the 2015 U.S. Open to Roberta Vinci. She had suffered a concussion after slipping and falling down in the locker room. Bouchard is suing the United States Tennis Association following the incident.
She will be up against either 15th-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine or Czech player Denisa Allertova in the next round.
The top eight seeded players, including world No. 2 and Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber of Germany, was eliminated in the second round.
Karolina Pliskova, seeded 10th, lost rather tamely to Russia's Margarita Gasparyan 6-1, 6-1 after struggling to get her first serves in during the whole match.
Germany's Andrea Petkovic, a former top-10 player now ranked 28th, continued her domination of Russia's Ekaterina Makarova, beating her 6-3, 6-2 in the last match of the day. She is now 4-0 in head-to-head against her Russian rival. Croatia's Donna Vekic brushed aside Omani wildcard Fatma Al Nabhani, winning 6-0, 6-0 in 50 minutes.