Australia’s Samantha Stosur has continued her downward spiral, making a first-round exit at the ATP-WTA Portugal Open.
Stosur, 30, was beaten in just 72 minutes on Tuesday, going down 6-4 6-0 to Swiss qualifier Timea Bacsinszky, and will now need to make amends quickly next week in Madrid as the French Open draws nearer.
Stosur was Roland Garros runner-up four years ago and reached a semi-final in 2012, but her best result this season came four months ago when she reached the semi-finals in Hobart.
Second seed Bouchard, who was a semi-finalist at the Australian Open in Melbourne in January, beat Russian Alisa Kleybanova 6-4 6-1 to reach the second round, winning in 73 minutes.
Bouchard broke five times and made a spectacular recovery on a point in the second set in which she completely lost her footing but managed to win anyway with some luck and a shot hit while sitting down.
She will next face Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova for a quarter-final place.
Top seed Carla Suarez Navarro recovered from last week’s wrist injury to start with a defeat of Alla Kudryavtseva 6-1, 6-2.
Italian fourth seed Roberta Vinci needed three sets to beat Alexandra Cadantu of Romania, while 2012 champion Kaia Kanepi, the Estonian fifth seed, started with a crushing win over Austrian Yvonne Meusburger 6-2, 6-1.
Russian seventh seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, a 2013 quarter-finalist, and eighth seed Elena Vesnina are also through.
In men’s play, Portugal’s world number 243 Rui Machado thrashed fifth seed Dmitry Tursunov 6-0, 6-0 with the Russian unable to explain his collapse.
“I felt like a fish on land. I need to think hard about the state of my tennis and make some serious adjustments. I hope no one has to live through a match like that again,” he said.
Indian Somdev Devvarman defeated Australian Matthew Ebden in straight sets while there was also a comfortable win for Carlos Berlocq against New York-born Japanese Davis Cup player Taro Daniel.
Two-time champion Albert Montanes won in straight sets against fellow Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena.
