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| Eugenie Bouchard celebrates winning the quarterfinal match of the French Open tennis tournament against Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro at the Roland Garros stadium, in Paris, France, Tuesday, June 3, 2014. Bouchard won in three sets 7-6, 2-6, 7-5. (AP / Darko Vojinovic) |
The spot in the final four comes four months after the 18th seed from Westmount, Que., lost to eventual champion Li Na in an Australian Open semifinal.
The 20-year-old Bouchard will next meet Russia's Maria Sharapova after the 2012 champion beat Spain's Garbine Muguruza in a 1-6, 7-5, 6-1 comeback win.
"I'm very content with a win like this," said Bouchard. "It was a battle throughout. She played very well especially on long points.
"The last set was key for me. I'm really excited to be playing Sharapova in a big match here."
Bouchard won the first set in an hour, but dropped the second as she lost her last two service games.
Suarez Navarro jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the third set before the Canadian fought back with a key break and service holds.
Bouchard earned a match point but double-faulted the opportunity away. She put a backhand long on a second chance before clinching victory after two hours 22 minutes when her opponent came up short on a return.
Bouchard finished with 46 winners, 38 unforced errors and breaks on six of 14 chances.
Sharapova, a four-time Grand Slam winner, has won both of her previous matches against Bouchard, including a second-round match last year in Paris.
Following the tradition begun in Melbourne earlier this year, a fan tossed a stuffed animal to Bouchard and she took it to her on-court television interview. Former French player Fabrice Santoro then insisted on taking a photo with Bouchard as the crowd cheered.
Bouchard is the third Canadian woman to reach the Roland Garros quarter-finals after Carling Bassett-Seguso (1984, 1986) and Helen Kelesi (1988, 1989). Bouchard and Bassett-Seguso are the only players to reach the semifinals at a Grand Slam (Bassett-Seguso, 1984 US Open).
Later Monday, Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., was aiming to reach the men's singles semifinals. He faced second-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia.
Sharapova, meanwhile, started slow Tuesday by dropping four of her first five games. She then started to land her shots and her serves with more consistency and won nine of the last 10 games.
Muguruza, who was playing in a Grand Slam quarter-final for the first time in her career, eliminated defending champion Serena Williams in the second round.
Sharapova lost in the semifinals at Roland Garros in 2011, then won the title a year later to complete a career Grand Slam. She lost in last year's final to Williams.
"It was so tough losing in the final last year, being the defending champion," Sharapova said. "This year, to come back, I have the extra motivation to go further, and to be back on (this) stage is a really nice feeling."
Sharapova opened her match with a double fault, the first of eight in the match. And she lost 15 of the first 20 points.
But even though Sharapova held in the fifth game, she was broken again, this time at love, to lose the first set.
Things changed rather quickly in the second set. At 1-1, Sharapova finally broke, with some help from Muguruza.
The unseeded Spaniard, ranked 35th in the world, double-faulted twice in a row to give Sharapova her second break point of the match. The tall Russian converted when Muguruza sent a backhand long.
Although Sharapova was broken again in the set, again with a double fault, she started to hold serve more easily while giving Muguruza more trouble while receiving.
By the time the third set started, Sharapova was moving Muguruza all over the court, landing her forehands and backhands easily.
The only hiccup came in the fourth game, when Muguruza had five break points but couldn't convert any of them.
"That was one of the most important games," Sharapova said. "After I won that game, I certainly gained more confidence."
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