Eugenie Bouchard cheered up the home crowd as she pulled off a stunning 6-2 6-0 conquest of 11th seed Dominika Cibulkova, to sail into the third round of the Rogers Cup.
The unseeded local favourite, who has had a topsy-turvy ride this season, avenged her loss from the third-round of the Wimbledon Championships, where her Slovak nemesis had emerged victorious in straight sets.
Bouchard won 71 percent of her first-serve points (against Cibulkova’s 35) and saved all of her seven break points on offer to cruise through after battling for one hour and 13 minutes.
Moving on, she is slated to lock horns with another Slovak in qualifier Kristina Kucova, who ousted eighth-seeded Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro 3-6 6-4 6-4.
Elsewhere, No. 2 seed Angelique Kerber was stretched to the wire by 55th-ranked Mirjana Lucic-Baroni before prevailing 6-3 4-6 6-3 in a 99-minute encounter.
Fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska also made further progress following a 6-1 7-5 victory against Monica Niculescu.
The Pole produced a near-perfect performance in the first set, losing just one point on her first serve, before surviving a close second set to set up a date with 16th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who clinched a 6-1 7-5 win over lucky loser Christina McHale.
OTHER RESULTS
(15) Johanna Konta d. (Q) Vania King 7-5 6-1
(10) Madison Keys d. Madison Brengle 6-4 6-3
(6) Venus Williams d. Barbora Strycova 6-3 6-0
(9) Svetlana Kuznetsova d. (Q) Alla Kudryavtseva 7-5 6-0
(12) Petra Kvitova d. Andrea Petkovic 6-2 6-4
(14) Karolina Pliskova d. Sara Errani (w/o)
(7) Roberta Vinci d. (Q) Camila Giorgi 2-6 6-3 6-4
Daria Kasatkina d. (13) Samantha Stosur 7-6 6-3
(17) Elina Svitolina d. (WC) Francoise Abanda 7-6 7-6
(2) Angelique Kerber d. Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-3 4-6 6-3
