Westmount's Eugenie Bouchard pulled off a minor upset in Charleston, South Carolina Friday by edging second-seeded Jelena Jankovic to reach the semi-finals of the Family Circle Cup, leaving only two lower-ranked opponents on the road to the championship.
Bouchard needed three sets to edge the 29-year-old, six-foot Serbian, currently ranked eighth in the world. Bouchard took two hours and two minutes to prevail over the former world number one 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
Bouchard was strong once again on her opponent's second serve, winning 52 percent of second serve tries, whereas Jankovic could only cash in on 37 percent of Bouchard's second serves.
Bouchard trailed 2-1 in the final set. She then dug in to win the next three games and take control. Her steady, strong groundstrokes wore down Jankovic.
"It was the third set and your concentration goes down a little bit if you're getting tired," Jankovic said. "It was so close. It could have went either way, if I was a little bit tougher out there and played certain points a little smarter."
The two also met in the quarterfinals last year, and Jankovic won 6-2, 6-1. Bouchard was ranked No. 114 then, but she's 20th now.
"Well, I didn't want it to be Groundhog Day today, for sure," Bouchard said. "Same tournament, same round, same opponent."
Bouchard hit two aces and double faulted twice, while Jankovic had two aces and one double fault. She broke Jankovic six times while only being broken four times.
Jankovic was accurate on her first serve, getting 79 percent of her first tries in but only won 58 percent of her points on her first serve. Bouchard was less accurate on her first serve, hitting 68 percent in on the first try but won a two-thirds of those points.
Will battle Petkovic Saturday
The 20th ranked Bouchard could be considered the favourite in her next match, against the German Andrea Petkovic, ranked 40, as they take the court Saturday afternoon.
"Every time I go into a tournament now and every match, I always believe I can win," she said.
Even when she falls behind, as happened in her past two matches. Bouchard trailed in the third set against Venus Williams on Thursday and Jankovic this time before rallying to victories. "I feel confidence in myself," she said.
If Bouchard wins the semi finals she would face off in the finals against one of two lower-ranked opponents, Belinda Bencic (140) of Switzerland, who upset the Italian Sara Errani of Italy (11) or Jana Cepelova of Slovakia (78) who toppled Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia (32).
In other Montreal tennis news, Aleksandra Wozniak saw her run at the Monterrey Open ended Thursday evening in a second round match against the Serbian Ana Ivanovic, who won 6-4, 6-2.
-With a file from The Associated Press
