AP, Charleston :Eugenie Bouchard knew she was pointed to bigger things at the Family Circle Cup last spring. After the top-seeded Bouchard fell to unseeded American Lauren Davis in her opening match this time around, the Canadian star isn’t sure where she’s heading.Bouchard, ranked seventh in the world, lost 6-3, 6-1 on Wednesday, a thorough beating that left her bothered and dissecting every aspect of her game.”As soon as it was over, definitely a bit of anger, but also kind of this confusion, slash, like quest to find what’s wrong, like this kind of searching feeling that, ‘OK, like I know something’s off,'” Bouchard said. “I know something’s not right. So I want to find it.”A year ago, everything was going right for Bouchard. She reached the semifinals here, starting a run where she advanced to the French Open semifinals and Wimbledon final.Bouchard has not played like that this year, losing her opening tournament match for a second straight event after falling to Tatjana Maria at the Miami Open.Davis, a 21-year-old American, was the aggressor throughout, something Bouchard didn’t fully understand.”I was definitely a little bit slow today, overpowered,” Bouchard said. “Usually, I’m the one dominating. So it was definitely, just, I don’t know, just not good.”Davis had lost the only career meeting with Bouchard, but was in control much of the way against the world’s seventh-ranked player. Davis won nine of the final 11 games of the match and broke Bouchard’s serve twice in the final set to pull off the upset.”I’ve never beaten here before, so I came out knowing I had nothing to lose,” said Davis, ranked 66th in the world.Bouchard was a semifinalist last year and, along with No. 2 seed Ekaterina Makarova, one of only two top-10 players in the field. She wore a black wrap around her right ankle.Davis used precise ground strokes to keep Bouchard on her heels throughout the second set. Davis broke Bouchard’s serve at love to take a 3-1 lead as the 21-year-old Canadian had a double fault, then sailed a forehand long to fall behind.Two games later, Davis hit a backhand to send back Bouchard’s 102 mph serve for a winner down the left sideline and a 5-1 lead. The match ended on Bouchard’s forehand into the met, Davis waving to the cheering crowd.”I was pretty calm and relaxed about it,” Davis said. “I was really happy inside.”Bouchard’s loss came a short time after Makarova won her opening match over Zhang Shuai 5-7, 6-3, 6-3, then withdrew because of a gastrointestinal illness.Makarova felt stomach pain during her match with Zhang and saw trainers after the match. When things didn’t get much better, she said she and her team decided it was best to rest and get ready for the remainder of the clay-court season.Her departure means 13th-seeded Irina-Camelia Begu, the 26-year-old Russian’s next opponent, will advance to Friday’s quarterfinals.
