MIAMI - Westmount's Eugenie Bouchard went down to a 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 defeat at the hands of troublesome rival Elina Svitolina in her opening match at the Sony Open on Friday.
Bouchard, 20, got the rivalry going two years ago when she won the junior Wimbledon title over Svitolina, 19.
Since then, the Ukrainian has beaten Bouchard three straight times, including at an Indian Wells qualifier and in a Fed Cup tie in 2013.
Montreal's Bouchard had an impressive start Friday but was quickly overcome by Svitolina, who spent 98 minutes engineering her comeback, The winner broke Bouchard five times and profited from six Bouchard double-faults.
Bouchard ended with a return error on her opponent's first match point.
Bouchard's life on court has been a challenge since reaching the Australian Open semifinals two months ago, Her best showing since was an Acapulco quarter-final last month before going out in the fourth round at Indian Wells to Simona Halep, the newest member of the top five on the WTA circuit.
Two other Montreal women, Aleksandra Wozniak and Francoise Abanda, were eliminated from the women's singles earlier in the tournament.
-With a file from The Canadian Press
