There are a number of reasons it might be said that a player is in need of a good tournament result.  It could be a promising talent looking for that initial breakthrough.  It may be a veteran seeking to emerge from a slump.  Or it might be a rising star looking to consolidate a position as a consistent contender at the top of the game.  After an opening-round exit in Montreal, Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard arguably fits into that last category as she prepares for Cincinnati.

At first glance, it probably seems harsh to suggest that a deep run at Cincinnati is important for Bouchard at this stage.  Despite underperforming at most tournaments outside the majors, she is the only woman in the WTA to have reached the semifinals or better at each of this year’s Grand Slam events.  In that respect, her early loss in Montreal could be considered trivial and just par for the course.  Bouchard was also admittedly rusty when she arrived in Canada, having not played a competitive match since her appearance in the Wimbledon final. 

Coupled with that, her Montreal conqueror, Shelby Rogers, had come through the qualifying, so she had the luxury of already having a few matches under belt prior taking to the court against Bouchard.  If all of that was not enough, the Canadian, a woman many are touting as the next Maria Sharapova, had to deal with expectations that were likely soaring through the roof when she played in front of her home crowd this week.

These challenges would be hard for any player to navigate, let alone a young prodigy quickly ascending the ranks to superstardom.  But there is no denying that Bouchard’s loss this week was a particularly ominous setback that stands out from her other defeats this season. 

For starters, she failed to win a single game in the first and third sets against Rogers.  Rusty or not, a player of her caliber taking on an opponent ranked outside the top 100 cannot accept that type of result.  Dating back to her showing in the Wimbledon final, it also means that she has failed to secure a game in three of the last four sets of tennis that she has played.  To be fair to the Canadian, Petra Kvitova was playing lights-out tennis when Bouchard ran up against her in that Wimbledon final, and Rogers definitely played above her ranking on Tuesday night.  That does not make it much less frustrating, however, that Bouchard proved unable to make the necessary adjustments to at least make those sets competitive. 

The reason behind her inability to make those adjustments will hold the key to her future over the next few weeks.  If Bouchard just succumbed to the pressure of playing in front of her home crowd, as might be the case, a change in venue may be all that she needs to return to the winning path.  But if her lopsided loss in Montreal was a carryover from the disappointment she felt with the way she fell in the Wimbledon final, her early exit in Canada might have compounded her problems.  Either way, she needs a solid showing in Cincinnati to get her game back on track and reassert her confidence.  Failing to do so could make matching her feats at the year’s first three majors much more difficult when she arrives in New York.

It should be interesting to see how Bouchard responds to this setback.  As previously noted, she has rarely allowed disappointments outside the majors to affect her performances at those marquee events, but she is now at a trickier juncture in her career.  Fans and pundits know Bouchard is no flash in the pan.  She faces more expectations now than she did when she made her runs in Melbourne and even Paris, and any shocking losses are harder to dismiss.  A deep run in Cincinnati would restore her confidence and set the ship straight again heading into Flushing Meadows, but she needs to remain focused on one match at a time.  Losing can quickly become a habit, especially when there is the added weight of heavy expectations, and if she is not careful, she could find herself fading toward the finish line in 2014.