Tennis: Eugenie Bouchard eases into fourth round at Indian Wells

Sixth-seeded Canadian Eugenie Bouchard used her potent forehand to great effect as she demolished American CoCo Vandeweghe 6-3 6-2 in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open on Monday. The 21-year-old broke an error-prone Vandeweghe once in the opening set and twice in the second to complete a one-sided victory in just over an hour on the showpiece stadium court at a sun-bathed Indian Wells Tennis Garden. [caption id=“attachment_1555831” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Eugenie Bouchard is a star. AP[/caption] Bouchard, who reached the last four in Australia and France as well as the Wimbledon final in 2014, hit 13 winners against her hard-hitting opponent and appropriately ended the match with a crunching forehand winner down the line. “I felt very solid today, and I think that’s important against a player who can have big weapons,” the Canadian world number seven told reporters. “I kind of told myself to be ready for anything. “She had some great serves and some great forehands. I was just ready for that. I was going to try and neutralise that and take my chances when I had them. So I’m happy I was able to step in and attack whenever she let up a little bit. “My serve was a bit more consistent today. I’m always working to try and get it better. It definitely gives me confidence knowing that I was holding serve pretty easily.” Though Bouchard made 16 unforced errors, most of them with aggressive forehands that flew long, Vandeweghe’s much more erratic game was littered with 24 mistakes. The big-serving American, who blasted three aces at close to 120 miles per hour, was broken in the eighth game of the match, and again in the third and fifth games of the second set as she repeatedly blasted groundstrokes beyond the baseline. Bouchard, who celebrated her 21st birthday last month, will next face Ukrainian qualifier Lesia Tsurenko, who beat Frenchwoman Alize Cornet 7-5 1-6 6-2 on Monday after upsetting ninth-seeded German Andrea Petkovic in the previous round. Later on Monday, second-seeded Russian Maria Sharapova was due to play fellow former world number one Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in an eye-catching evening match. Azarenka has a career 7-6 advantage over Sharapova but has dropped to 38th in the world rankings after struggling for much of last year with a foot injury. Reuters