Dreams are short-lived for the twenty-two year old Eugenie Bouchard as her Wimbledon dream finished after the lost in third round in straight sets to Dominika Cibulkova.
Bouchard showed signs of returning to her best at SW19 with a dominant display against Jo Konta in the previous round on Centre Court, but the 2014 runner-up struggled to find her rhythm and was beaten 6-4 6-3 by the Slovakian on court two.
Two years ago in the final Bouchard lost to Petra Kvitova and now has to wait for her first success at a major championship.
Eastbourne champion Cibulkova now faces either Agnieszka Radwanska or Katerina Siniakova in the fourth round – with the No 19 seed winning her eighth straight match on grass court.
Saturday’s opponent could face a fine after being handed a code violation for smashing a ball after a point as she trailed by a break in the second set.
Bouchard told the media ‘I definitely feel like I wasn’t on top of my game today and she definitely was and I have to give credit to my opponent as she was really going for it and really taking it to me.”
She continued “Sometimes, a lot of points I felt like I didn’t have an answer. I definitely was a bit emotional out there. It’s frustrating to feel like you’re not playing your best tennis at Wimbledon but as painful as it is right now, I do need to realize I have made some progress. I don’t know what was going on but I couldn’t get in the right position, I couldn’t believe how many I was missing.”
Following the match she had a “let-down” or outburst which we see from several athletes, so not surprising, but she mentioned “Sometimes when I get it out I can turn it around and play a bit better. It didn’t really happen this time.”
Cibulkova (27) lost to Bouchard at the US Open last September but after avenging that disappointment she is confident of progressing deep into the second week and improving on her quarter-final appearance which dates back to 2011.
Despite the early exit at the third-round stage Bouchard should move up the rankings into the top 40.
She should, we hope to continue to improve during the hard court season and is in line to be seeded at the US Open.
It’s reported that she has taken the No. 1 spot on the People with Money’s top 10 highest paid tennis players for the 2016 and reported she has an estimated $96 million in combined earnings.
So while she has not won this event and we feel sorry for her loss, she’s doing fine and living the life of luxury.
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