Bouchard’s Hobart campaign over

8 January 2018, by Leigh Rogers

Eugenie Bouchard’s return to the Hobart International has been short-lived, knocked out in the first round by Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.

A big-hitting Sabalenka overpowered the former world No.5 and Hobart International 2016 finalist, winning 6-4 6-3.

“She has a powerful game, so it’s hard to get rhythm,” Bouchard conceded. “It’s either a winner or an error, it’s first-strike tennis.

“At the beginning I was a little bit slow but I feel like I got into it, then just lost a few key points in the second.

“It’s not where I want to be, but I’ll just take away another match, another learning process and just keep going.”

Bouchard struggled on serve, only holding three times in the 76-minute match and serving 12 double faults.

“I felt like I double faulted a lot, which is a bit unusual for me,” she said. “I was getting pretty frustrated with that.”

Sabalenka plays top seed Zhang Shuai of China in the second round.

Zhang fought back from a slow start to defeat Poland’s Magda Linette 7-5 6-3.