Eugenie Bouchard piled more misery on Jelena Jankovic, winning the first-round match-up of former top-10 players 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 at the Italian Open on Tuesday.
Jankovic won this clay-court tournament in 2007 and 2008, but has gone three months without reaching a quarterfinal.
Bouchard, the 2014 Wimbledon runner-up, slipped in the rankings last year but has rebounded with two finals this season.
“I knew it would be a tough battle,” Bouchard said. “I realised that she started controlling too many points, so in the third set I decided no matter what, even if I make a couple more mistakes, I need to step in and go for it. That made the difference.”
Bouchard next faces Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber.
Hot topic The biggest talk around Rome, however, was Andy Murray’s split with Amelie Mauresmo and whether it would be seen as a failure for women coaching top players.
The British star improved as a clay-court player under Mauresmo, but failed to add to his collection of Grand Slam titles. “It did work. For two years the results that we had were good,” said Murray, a day after the break-up was announced. “When she first came into the team, I was really struggling, he said.”Murray became the first high-profile tennis player to hire a woman as a coach when he took Mauresmo on board in June 2014. He won his first clay-court titles last year in Munich and Madrid.
“When she came on board, my results actually picked up,” Murray added. “I mean, for me, the time we spent together was positive. It’s just a shame I wasn’t able to win one of the major events, because that’s what both of us wanted.”
The results:
Men: Second round: Kei Nishikori bt Viktor Troicki 5-7, 6-2, 6-3; Tomas Berdych bt Albert Ramos 6-3, 6-4.
Women: First round: Christina McHale bt Claudia Giovine 6-1, 2-6, 6-2; Svetlana Kuznetsova bt Caroline Garcia 7-5, 6-4; Samantha Stosur bt Alison Riske 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-1; Daria Gavrilova bt Sabine Lisicki 6-1, 7-6(3); Mariana Duque bt Monica Niculescu 6-4, 6-1; Johanna Konta bt Johanna Larsson 6-1, 6-2; Jelena Ostapenko bt Kristina Mladenovic 6-3, 6-1; Timea Babos bt Kiki Bertens 6-1, 6-4; Eugenie Bouchard bt Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.
