US Open Recap: Eugenie Bouchard Goes Down To Ekaterina Makarova, Poor Weather Conditions
The women's top seeds keep falling faster than flies at the Flushing Meadows.
Canadian star Eugenie Bouchard was the latest of the higher seeded players to be eliminated in the 2014 US Open as she fell to 17th ranked Ekaterina Makarova of Russia during the fourth round of the tournament in two sets, 7-6 (2), 6-4.
The 7th-ranked player was visibly muffled by the humidity and the temperature which led her at time to feel light headed and even suffered from blurry visions. The weather conditions did Bouchard in as she requested to have her blood pressure checked and during a second set break, she rubbed plastic bags filled with ice on her torso and shoulders.
This was not the first time that the tennis star succumbed to humidity problems as she relayed that it also occurred to her during last year's US Open and when she was competing as a junior at the Australian Open. The humidity coupled with the pressure to win got to her and ended her remarkable run of reaching of at least reaching the semifinal stages of every major tournament this year. She was just coming off the runner-up finish at Wimbledon when she bowed to Petra Kvitova.
"I definitely felt a lot of outside expectations and pressure to win matches. I felt more like it's normal if I win and it's a bit more of a disaster when I lose," Bouchard said via the tournament's official website. "But that's something that I need to block out."
The 2013 WTA Newcomer of the Year showed signs of fatigue and distress during the middle part of the first set. During the fifth game of second set, she had to be checked on by a trainer and needed the ice bags to cool her down. Makarova did the same strategy but was not as bothered as the Canadian player.
Her elimination will now assure that at least eight women will enter the final eight slots in the year's Grand Slam tournaments. And this now leaves only No. 10 Caroline Wozniacki and No. 1 Serena Williams left to contest the final Grand Slam tourney at Flushing Meadows.