Ladies Open Gstaad: Bouchard cruises past Kudermetova into semis

Rudi Schuller

Ladies Open Gstaad: Bouchard cruises past Kudermetova into semis image

Genie Bouchard's good run through the Ladies Open Gstaad continued on Friday with a 7-5, 6-0 quarterfinal win over Russia's Veronika Kudermetova.

Unlike the previous day's match, in which Bouchard had fight through consecutive tiebreaks to claim victory, Friday's contest started off fairly even for most of the first set until the World No. 146 pulled away from her opponent with relative ease.

Bouchard claimed a back-and-forth first set with a superior first serve percentage and by successfully breaking her opponent's serve on all three opportunities that were presented. The Canadian kept her mistakes to a minimum and hit four aces to deservedly go ahead against the Russian.

Momentum then swung firmly into Bouchard's favour, as the 24-year-old won an astonishing 19 points in a row between the end of the opening set and into the second, allowing her to win eight straight games en route to completing a near-perfect second set. Kudermetova, ranked five places higher than her opponent, had no answers for Bouchard on the day and could do little to stop what ended up being a dominant victory for the Canadian.

The win sees Bouchard into her first semifinal since January 2017.

Bouchard will take on top seed Alizé Cornet of France on Saturday.

Rudi Schuller