Tuesday 9 June 2015 20:47, UK
Eugenie Bouchard’s dreadful season continued when, as top seed, she was dumped out of the Topshelf Open in the Netherlands.
The Canadian, who dropped out of the world’s top 10 on Monday, was beaten 6-4 1-6 6-3 by Kazakhstan’s world No 76 Yaroslava Shvedova in s-Hertogenbosch – Bouchard’s ninth defeat in 10 matches.
Bouchard – whose favourite surface is grass - also lost in the first round of the French Open two weeks ago, where she was the sixth seed.
Bouchard, 21, climbed as high as No 5 in the world last year, becoming the first Canadian to reach a Grand Slam final, and she also reached two other Slam semis.
But since January Bouchard has lost her opening matches in Antwerp, Miami, Charleston, Madrid and at Roland Garros. She lost in the the second round in Rome and third round in Indian Wells - and she also lost both her Fed Cup matches against Romania.
Second seed Jelena Jankovic had a tough battle with Czech Tereza Smitkova but prevailed 7-5 6-4. Fourth seed Belinda Bencic, sixth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and seventh seed Kristina Mladenovic - who beat Bouchard in Paris - all advanced to the second round.
