Canadian Eugenie Bouchard opens Wimbledon on a winning note

WIMBLEDON, United Kingdom – It was a successful main draw debut at Wimbledon for Canadian Eugenie Bouchard.

The Montreal native rallied to defeat Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-4 on Monday.

Bouchard, 19, is playing in the women’s draw for the first time after winning the junior crown last year.

She will face former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia in the second round. The 12th-seeded Ivanovic defeated Virginie Razzano of France 7-6 (1), 6-0 on Monday.

Bouchard’s win came despite her modest grass-court season, with the teenager winning one round in a lower-level event in Nottingham and one qualifying round at Eastbourne.

Bouchard fired 29 winners and broke her opponent’s serve three times, coming back after losing the opening set and again in the third set after losing an early break.

She had 25 unforced errors and three aces.

Bouchard sent a backhand long to lose the first set but took the second against the 88th-ranked Voskoboeva after nearly an hour as she rallied from a 4-0 deficit in the tiebreaker.

In the third, Bouchard went up a break only to lose it thee games later on a forehand error. But she got the break back for 5-4 and served out the win a game later on the first of three match points.

Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil plays Frenchman Marc Giquel later in the day.