MELBOURNE, Australia – Canadian Eugenie Bouchard crushed Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 6-0, 6-3 Wednesday to reach the third round of the Australian Open for a second straight year.
The seventh-seed from Westmount, Que., needed just 54 minutes to defeat the 72nd-ranked Bertens in their first career meeting.
Bouchard rolled through the opening set in just 23 minutes against an opponent who is now 0-5 versus top 10 opponents.
Two of Bertens’ three game wins came on breaks of Bouchard’s serve, including when the Canadian was first serving for the match.
Bouchard finished with six breaks of serve and 20 winners as she won a second consecutive match on the Margaret Court showcase arena.
Bouchard will play in the third round against France’s Caroline Garcia, who beat Swiss player Stefanie Voegele 6-3, 6-4.
Bertens briefly made a match of it in the second set, but fell behind despite breaking Bouchard in the opening game of the second set and losing the lead a game later.
“I lost my focus a bit, that’s unacceptable,” said the 20-year-old. “I’ll make sure it won’t happen again. I can be hard on myself, I’m a perfectionist.”
“It’s fun to play here at night, it’s a special atmosphere,” added Bouchard. “I’m glad I was finally able to hold my serve – and hold my serve at the end.”.
Bouchard, who broke through to the semifinals in Melbourne and Paris last season before playing in the Wimbledon final, is now 7-1 in Australia.
In men’s doubles, Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil teamed with Austrian veteran Julian Knowle as the 13th-seeded pair won an opening match over German Jan-Lennard Struff and Dominic Thiem of Austria 7-6 (3), 3-6, 7-6 (4).
Pospisil, Wimbledon doubles champion last summer with Jack Sock, is playing with Knowle, a Wimbledon finalist in 2004, for the first time with Sock recovering after surgery and not back on court until at least next month.
The pair are the second Canadian doubles team in the event after Toronto’s Daniel Nestor and new partner Rohan Bopanna. The seventh seeds won a debut title in Sydney last weekend.
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