On Tuesday at the Rogers Cup, cancer survivor Alisa Kleybanova was playing her first match on the WTA Tour in 17 months, but the rising Canadian star Eugenie Bouchard eliminated the former Top 20 player at the very beginning, in the first round. The 19-year-old from Montreal beat the Russian, currently ranked 599th, 6-3 6-1.
In the recent recovery period away from the WTA Tour, the 24-year-old Kleybanova played small ITF tournaments, won the one in Landisville in May, while ahead of the Rogers Cup she played World Team Tennis for the Springfield Lasers and won the Mylan World Team Tennis Rookie of The Year award.
Bouchard is scheduled to meet defending champion and No.6 seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in the next round. It’s been a busy week for the Canadian, who also teamed with Monica Seles on Monday for an exhibition against the Williams sisters and dropped her first-round doubles match with partner Kirsten Flipkens, the Belgian who on Tuesday went on to stop the comeback of Venus Williams already in the first round of the singles action at the Rogers Cup. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)
