While the cream of the crop of the tennis world battles it out in the final few rounds of the Australian Open, Canadian starlet Eugenie Bouchard has slipped to another low, losing in the first round of a WTA Challenger event in Newport Beach.
Bouchard was defeated at Newport Beach by unheralded American player Alexa Glatch in straight sets.
Glatch made light work of the former Wimbledon finalist, earning a 6-1 6-2 in 64 minutes.
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It was a performance that highlighted Bouchard's ongoing struggles.
She was getting just 59% of her first serves in, and won only 50% of first serves that were good.
On second serve, it was even worse, with Bouchard only winning 23% on her second serve.
On the other side of the net, Glatch was safe on first serve and managed to convert four of the 10 breakpoint opportunities she had. Bouchard was only offered
Ranked 299th in the world, Glatch has made the second round three times at Grand Slams, but the most recent was the French Open in 2009.
She started her year with a loss in the first round of qualifying for the Hobert International.
Glatch, 30, spent most of 2019 on the third tier ITF/USTA tour, making finals in Tyler, Texas and Denver, Colorado.
Bouchard, who made the semi-finals of the Australian and French Opens in 2014 before reaching the final two at Wimbledon, has seen her ranking plummet over the past few years.
Ranked as high as fifth in her breakout 2014 season, Bouchard had slipped out of the top 100 by July last year.
After a first round exit at the US Open, Bouchard played an ITF event and a Challenger event to finish the year and was ranked as low as 224 at one point in November.
Still just 25, Bouchard started 2020 with some good form, making the quarter-finals of the ASB Classic in Auckland courtesy of straight set wins over Kirsten Flipkens and Caroline Garcia.
She then went down in three sets to Amanda Anisimova in the last eight.
The Canadian entered the qualifying draw in Melbourne, but lost 6-4 6-3 to Italian Martina Trevisan in the final round.