Sports Mole previews Monday’s Canadian Open first round match between Eugenie Bouchard and Emiliana Arango, including predictions and form.
Competing in her final WTA tournament before retirement, Eugenie Bouchard faces Emiliana Arango in the opening round of the Canadian Open on Monday.
Bouchard is coming into this tournament fresh off a round-of-32 loss to Anna Rogers at the Hall of Fame Open (5-7, 2-6), while Arango lost her first match at Wimbledon versus Daria Kasatkina (5-7, 3-6).
Match preview
Monday could be the last time Canadians see the woman who helped pave the way for many others in the country to take up tennis, with Bouchard announcing earlier this month that she would step away from the sport after this event.
The 31-year-old, born in Montreal, who was a singles finalist at Wimbledon in 2014 and made the semi-finals of the Australian and French Open that same year, went nearly a year without playing before the Hall of Fame Open earlier this summer.
She has lost her opening singles match in her last two appearances on tour, including a three-set defeat to Moyuka Uchijima at the Canadian Open last year.
A wildcard at the tournament this time around, Bouchard will aim to make it beyond the opening round of the Canadian Open for the first time since 2016, when she got all the way to round three.
Coming into this tournament, Bouchard has lost her previous two singles matches on tour when winning the opening set, including a three-set defeat versus Uchijima at this event in 2024.
While she has not achieved many highlights in her career of late, the first Canadian woman to make a singles Grand Slam final helped her country capture the Billie Jean Cup in 2023.
Lately, Emiliana Arango has been going through her share of growing pains on the singles tour, losing her opening match on four successive occasions.
On Monday, the 24-year-old Colombian will seek her first appearance in a round of 64 singles event since the French Open this year, when she ousted Alexandra Eala in her first match of that competition.
Not since the HSBC Challenge in London last month has she managed to win a set on the singles tour, losing her opener in straight sets in her last three tournament appearances.
This will be the first time she competes at this tournament, and in her 12 matches played this year, Arango has struggled to get much power behind her serve, hitting a mere four aces thus far.
At this stage of her 2025 campaign, the woman born in Medellin has a first-serve percentage of 69%, saving 52.9% of her break points on serve this year.
Although she has not been particularly impressive in the service game, Arango has converted 50.9% of her break-point chances in 2025 and won 47.6% of her return points.
We say: Bouchard to win in three sets
The veteran Canadian may be a little rusty, but she has been in her share of pressure situations, and we expect she will get a massive sentimental boost from the pro-Canadian crowd.
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