Eugenie Bouchard follows solid return to court to earn spot in Istanbul tourney

Canada's Eugenie Bouchard has qualified for the Istanbul Tennis Championship.

Bouchard, from Westmount, Que., beat world No. 148 Leonie Kung of Switzerland 6-4, 6-4 in the second and final round of qualifying for the WTA Tour event on Tuesday in Turkey.

Bouchard, ranked 272nd, will face world No. 133 Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria in the first round of the clay-court event on Wednesday.

A former world No. 5, the 26-year-old Bouchard now has to qualify to get into most events.

The Canadian reached the quarter-finals of the Prague Open last month — her first and only tournament at the top level since the WTA Tour restarted play after nearly five months off because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a doubles first-round match on Tuesday, No. 4 seeds Sharon Fichman of Toronto and partner Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine lost 6-3, 7-6 (4) to Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia and Katarina Zavatska of Ukraine.

WATCH | Eugenie Bouchard loses in Prague Open quarter-finals:

Eugenie Bouchard falls to Elise Mertens in Prague quarters

4 years ago

Duration 3:49

No. 3 seed Elise Mertens of Belgium beat wildcard Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 to advance to the semifinals of the Prague Open.