Genie Bouchard and her partner, American Sloane Stephens, knocked out the fifth-seeded pairing of fellow Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and Yifan Xu in the first round at the Rogers Cup women’s doubles tournament.
After each pairing won a set, Monday afternoon’s match came down to a decisive third set. Bouchard and Stephens fell into a quick deficit in the tiebreak, trailing 5-2. However, the duo won eight of the next nine points to seize the win and advance to the second round.
The victory for Bouchard and Stephens, despite their singles success, is an upset as Dabrowski is the WTA's No. 9 ranked doubles player. The Dabrowski-Xu pairing made it to the semifinals in last month’s Wimbledon grand slam.
Ça commence fort sur le Court Banque Nationale 🔥@geniebouchard et @SloaneStephens l’emportent 6-4, 4-6, 10-6 face à Dabrowski/Xu. pic.twitter.com/gkSvyTqqSg
— Coupe Rogers (@CoupeRogers) August 6, 2018
As for the stat sheet between the pairings, it was nearly identical. Both pairings split the first two sets at 6-4 a piece; while the pairs won 59 percent of their services throughout the match.
Bouchard and Stephens will face the winner of Carson Barnstine and Rebecca Marino vs. Kirsten Filpkens and Daria Gavrilova match, who play each other on Tuesday.
Bouchard will begin her singles campaign on Tuesday, where she goes up against Belgian Elise Mertens. They’ve only faced each other once as Mertens got the best of Bouchard in the 2016 Libema Open.
Stephens received a first-round bye and will take on the winner between Canadian Francoise Abanda and Kirsten Filpkens.