Elise Mertens creates waves and captures Hawaii Open title from Bouchard
"I just love it here, it was such high-level tennis", Elise Mertens smilingly said to the on-court presenter Jared after she won the Hawaii Open title 2-6, 7-5, 12-10 from Canada's Eugenie Bouchard.
The saga started on the first day when Eugenie Bouchard took the aggressive stance over her opponent CoCo Vandeweghe and won decisively 6-0, 7-6. The second day Bouchard was consistent and dictated her shots over opponent Garbine Muguruza. As the Spaniard first came on things seemed fine, but as the match grew, she had lost her timing and rally to keep up with the strategy of Bouchard who never cooled down from her victory over Vandeweghe. The island air must not have been Muguruza's best recipe for she first kept up well, yet lost 5-7 in the first set. It was gradually all Bouchard and before long the Island fans had finished their chilled refreshments after a short time of seeing Muguruza drop the second set and match 5-7, 1-6.
Bouchard was on a roll and walked on the court with a raised arm to greet the fans on day 3. Elise Mertens joined Bouchard in this Hawaii Open final but it looked like the Canadian lady would run Mertens off the court and grab the crystal trophy, but somehow along the way, Mertens became energized. Bouchard ran off four straight games when the score reached 2-all and won 6-2 making the crowd grow excited and loud. Mertens at first lost her drive in aggression and picked up a few off balanced foot positions causing her to almost fall flat on the blue carpeted surface. Bouchard kept up her intensity and dictated nicely all of her shots. She pushed Mertens back to the baseline, cross courted her to create unforced errors and put away balls giving her fast, sharp rallies. "She has to do something to change Bouchard's rhythm", the commentator had said sympathizing with Mertens who looked lost out there on the court. The second set the Belgian did more to execute her strokes and leveled the games to 4-all. Bouchard kept fighting and added another game to the scoreboard. But she might have gotten overconfident letting Mertens tie it up with five. The Canadian started having more unforced errors and dropped the set 5-7.
The deciding set was a shocker as Bouchard continued her intensity and precision but as the score kept being tied and had gotten to 10, Bouchard had started losing her touch and flavour, plopping down more unforced errors helping the Belgian to win another game making her lead 11-10. Bouchard had Mertens on the defence and could have possibly won with an overhead smash, but eager she blasted it into the alley giving Mertens the match and the Hawaii Open title. When asked what happen, Mertens smiled saying "I can't even remember the last point, only that she missed that smash". When the same question was put to Bouchard, she half smiled saying "I'm so mad at myself right now", and the audience wouldn't accept that because of the fine performance both ladies had put on for the crowd in the three wonderful days in Honolulu. The audience stood up and applauded for both, a bit sad to see it all end. Bouchard mentioned of loving the island and took a picture with Mertens and the crystal trophy. "This is awkward", Bouchard whispered to Mertens as they both laughed, with Bouchard missing the 'runner-up' trophy so traditional in other tournaments and events but not at the Hawaii Open.
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2SlfzCf
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