By Chris Oddo | Saturday May 6, 2017
Eugenie Bouchard did her part to set up a second-round battle with Maria Sharapova at Madrid as the Canadian snapped a six-match losing streak by defeating Alizé Cornet, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.
Bouchard claims her first career win at Madrid, and her first three-set win of the season in five tries.
The Canadian has lost in the first round at Madrid in each of the last three seasons.
Bouchard improved to 3-2 lifetime against Cornet, breaking serve seven times on 13 opportunities and improving to 6-8 on the season. She will face the winner of tomorrow’s first-round match between Maria Sharapova and No.17-seeded Mirjana Lucic-Baroni next.
No.9-seeded Madison Keys became the first Top 10 seed to fall on Saturday as the American was knocked off by Japan’s Miskaki Doi, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
Keys, the 2015 runner-up at Madrid, falls to 3-4 on the season and 4-2 against Doi.
She faced 16 break points and only saved six.
No.2-seeded Karolina Pliskova advanced with a 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-2 win over Lesia Tsurenko to book her spot in the second round. The Czech will face Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova next. Sevastova defeated China’s Zhang Shuai, 6-2, 6-4.
Other Day 1 winners in Madrid include Kiki Bertens (d. Makarova, 6-1, 7-6(4), Roberta Vinci (d. Kasatkina, 6-1, 1-6, 6-1), Irina-Camelia Begu (d. No.12 Vesnina, 6-4, 6-4) and Alison Riske (d. Golubic, 6-2, 6-4).