Boom Canadian teenager Eugenie Bouchard has upset Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic to advance to the semi-finals of the Australian Open.
With Ivanovic twice requiring medical treatment on her right thigh late in the second set, Bouchard seized her opportunity, going on to win 5-7 7-5 6-2 in a match lasting two hours and 24 minutes.
Her reward is a semi against China’s No.4 seed Li Na, who hammered fellow 31-year-old Flavia Pennetta from Italy 6-2 6-2 earlier on Wednesday.
The 30th-seeded Bouchard won the junior Wimbledon title in 2012, but did not make her senior grand slam debut until last year’s French Open.
Ivanovic, the No.14 seed, had caused the biggest upset of the Australian Open back in the fourth round when she downed world No.1 Serena Williams.
Bouchard went out of her way to thank her most passionate band of supporters, who have named themselves The Genie Army.
She said she was proud to have played more aggressively in the final set when the match was on the line.
“I’m a really impatient person but, on court, I try to stay calm,” said Bouchard, who also ended the Open run of Australian Casey Dellacqua in the previous round.
She must regroup for a semi-final against Li.
Although the Chinese No.1 claimed her only grand slam title to date three years ago at the French Open, it is at Melbourne Park where she has performed most consistently at major level.
She lost the 2011 and 2013 finals to Kim Clijsters and Victoria Azarenka respectively and also reached the Australian Open semis in 2010.
“I always look forward to coming back to Melbourne,” said Li.
“I hope I can do one more step this year.”
Li has dropped only four games in each of her most recent two matches against Ekaterina Makarova and Pennetta after coming back from match point down to squeeze past Czech Lucie Safarova in the third round.
“Of course, I got a lot of confidence from that,” said Li.
“Finally, I came back to win that match.”
Li dominated the outright winners’ count 23-14 against Pennetta and also committed 10 less unforced errors than her outgunned Italian opponent.