Eugenie Bouchard ousted in 1st round at Miami Open
20-year-old Australian hands former top-5 Canadian 4th straight loss
Canada's Eugenie Bouchard suffered a fourth consecutive loss Wednesday, falling 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 to Ashleigh Barty in the first round of the Miami Open.
Barty stretched her winning streak to eight matches by claiming the last three games of the match between two past junior Wimbledon champions whose careers have both been filled with ups and downs.
Barty, a 20-year-old Australian, was off the tour for about 1 1/2 years, including a stint playing cricket. But she is back and better than ever now, ranked a career-high 91st after winning her first WTA title as a qualifier at Kuala Lumpur.
The 23-year-old Bouchard, from Montreal, has exited in the first round of each of her past three tournaments and is now ranked 56th after reaching No. 5 in 2014, the year she was the runner-up at Wimbledon and reached the semifinals at two other Grand Slam tournaments.
Iguanas interruptus
An iguana caused a delay in the Tommy Haas-Jiri Vesely match, perching atop a scoreboard and then scurrying across the court.
The rather large reptile showed up at Court 1 midway through the final set of Vesely's 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-5 victory.
Sorry, Iggy, but <a href="https://twitter.com/TommyHaas13">@tommyhaas13</a> iguana go finish the match. <a href="https://t.co/teApNiQps2">pic.twitter.com/teApNiQps2</a>
—@MiamiOpenAt first, they tried to continue with the match. But action was halted as attempts were made to remove the iguana.
Haas wandered over with a cellphone and snapped a selfie with the critter.
At one point, the unpaid spectator climbed down the scoreboard and ran across the court before winding up on top of another scoreboard.
Eventually, someone used a towel to grab the critter by the tail and carried him away.