Home support proved no help as Eugene Bouchard s struggles continued Tuesday with a straight-sets loss to qualifier Donna Vekic at the WTA hardcourt tournament in Toronto.
Croatia s Vekic powered to a 6-3, 6-4 victory, to the disappointment of a partisan crowd whose vocal support couldn t lift Bouchard.
The Canadian, who has just one match win since a second-round exit at the French Open, committed 32 unforced errors and seven double faults.
She was broken six times by the 21-year-old Vekic, who is in the main draw of this US Open tuneup for the first time.
“I guess I am going to have to have a tournament in Croatia to finally have the home crowd,” said Vekic, who booked a second-round clash with German third seed Angelique Kerber — who held the world number one ranking earlier this year.
Bouchard, touted as a rising star when she reached the 2014 Wimbledon final on the heels of semi-final appearances at the Australian and French Opens, was once ranked as high as fifth in the world.
She s now 70th and received a wildcard entry into the main draw, but her Toronto campaign lasted just 94 minutes.
In other early matches, 10th-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland continued her dominance of big-serving American CoCo Vandeweghe with a 6-3, 6-2 win.
Radwanska, winner of the Canadian crown in 2014 when the tournament was held in Montreal, has won five straight hardcourt meetings against Vandeweghe — who managed to turn the tables in a grass court clash at Birmingham last year.
It was a disappointing early exit for Vandeweghe, who reached the final at Stanford last week to move into the top 20 in the world rankings.
Russia s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova swept past France s Alize Cornet 6-0, 6-1 to book a second-round meeting with newly minted world number one and top seed Karolina Pliskova.
