EASTBOURNE: Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard in action during the second-round match against Alison Riske of the US at the Eastbourne International on Tuesday.—Reuters

EASTBOURNE: Eugenie Bouchard earned her first win of the grass-court season when the 2014 Wimbledon runner-up beat Alison Riske of the US 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 in the Eastbourne International second round on Tuesday.

The result was desperately sought by Bouchard, who came into the event having lost nine of her last 10 matches, including opening defeats in the last two weeks on grass at s-Hertogenbosch and Birmingham.

Her one win in her last eight events was in Rome in May as her ranking dropped out of the top 10 this month.

“It is good to finally get one [a win on grass],” Bouchard said. “I was a little bit more aggressive and I was trying to enjoy the moment.”

The seventh seed will wait for a third-round opponent from Swiss teen Belinda Bencic and 2014 titleholder Madison Keys, seeded 12th. Bencic reached the second round with a 6-4, 7-6 (9-7) defeat of German Mona Barthel on Sunday.

Two other seeds met upset fates in the second round, with Briton Johanna Konta extending her hometown win streak with a knockout of Russian fourth seed Ekaterina Makarova 6-2, 6-4. Konta, ranked 139, handed a 6-3, 6-2 first-round defeat to Kazakh, Zarina Diyas.

American Sloane Stephens, who overcame Naomi Broady of Britain 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) on Sunday, eliminated Spanish clay ace Carla Suarez Navarro, seeded fifth, 6-1, 7-5.

Czech eighth seed Karolina Pliskova beat Australian Casey Dellacqua 6-4, 7-5 and German tenth seed Andrea Petkovic beat Caroline Garcia 6-2, 6-4 to level her summer grass record at 1-1.

Rains on Monday had pushed Bouchard’s match against Riske, who stopped Alize Cornet of France 6-0, 6-3 on Sunday, to Tuesday.

Elsewhere on Monday, former Grand Slam finalists Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dominika Cibulkova advanced to the second round.

Kuznetsova, who has won the French Open and US Open, converted all four of her break points in beating Magdalena Rybarikova 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 to set up a match against Flavia Pennetta.

Cibulkova, a runner-up at the Australian Open last year, beat Harriet Dart 6-1, 6-3 and will next play 2014 Wimbledon semifinalist Lucie Safarova.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2015

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