MELBOURNE, Australia -- Eugenie Bouchard struggled through a scrappy opening set before getting on top in a 7-5, 6-0 third-round victory over Carolina Garcia that featured 10 breaks of serve on Friday at the Australian Open.
There were six service breaks by the time the scores were level at 4-4, but seventh-seeded Bouchard started finding rhythm late and got the crucial break in the 12th game.
The 20-year-old Canadian had a growing band of supporters at Rod Laver Arena, waving the flags and signs and drawing laughs from the crowd with their chants that use well-known tunes with the lyrics tweaked.
"Yeah, I don't think it was the prettiest tennis out there," said Bouchard in an interview. She reached the semifinals in her first trip to Melbourne Park last year and went on to make the semifinals or better at two of the other three majors in a breakthrough season.
Todd Woodbridge, who conducted the interview, kept the questions focused on Bouchard's tennis, a clear tactic after a controversy that resulted from Bouchard's previous on-court interview.
After Bouchard won her second-round match Wednesday over Kiki Bertens, she received a request from Ian Cohen, who is employed by Tennis Australia in its role as the host broadcaster.
Referring to a tweet Bouchard had posted the night before in admiration of Serena Williams' dress, Cohen asked Bouchard, "Can you give us a twirl and tell us about your outfit?"
"A twirl?" Bouchard asked.
"A twirl, a pirouette," Cohen said as the crowd began to whistle.
Bouchard obliged with a nervous smile, then covered her face after completing the spin as the crowd hooted.
In her postmatch news conference Wednesday, Bouchard said she had been confused by the request. "An old guy asking you to twirl?" she said. "It was funny."
It was not the first time one of Bouchard's on-court interviews in Melbourne had drifted away from tennis.
After winning her quarterfinal match over Ana Ivanovic last year to reach her first semifinal in a Grand Slam tournament, Bouchard was asked on court by interviewer Sam Smith, a woman, who her dream date would be.
Bouchard's response, that she would choose her compatriot Justin Bieber, drew boos.
In the earlier matches Friday, Yanina Wickmayer beat a seeded player for the second time in three rounds with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 comeback win over No. 14 Sara Errani.
Wickmayer, who took out No. 23 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on the first day, could face No. 3 and French Open finalist Simona Halep in the next round.
No. 10 Ekaterina Makarova had a 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 22 Karolina Pliskova and No. 21 Peng Shuai beat Yaroslava Shvedova 7-6 (7), 6-3 to move into a possible fourth-round showdown with No. 2 Maria Sharapova, who was playing No. 31 Zarina Diyas in a night match.
Seventh-seeded Tomas Berdych became the first man to advance to the fourth round when he beat Viktor Troicki 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, and No. 10 Grigor Dimitrov had a tough third-rounder against 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis before winning 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Berdych, who lost the 2010 Wimbledon final and reached the semifinals here last year, needed eight match points to clinch it, most of them in the penultimate game when Troicki held serve. He clinched it with an ace.
"It looks not very nice on the paper -- mostly, all of them on a big first serve," Berdych said. "It was a great save from him. I needed to wait one more game ... when the first chance came up, I served well and took it."
Sports on 01/23/2015