U.S. Open: Eugenie Bouchard advances to 4th round

Eugenie Bouchard is salvaging an otherwise forgettable season at the U.S Open.

The 25th-seeded Canadian has advanced to the fourth round of the last Grand Slam of the season after defeating Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova 7-6 (9), 4-6, 6-3.

Bouchard is starting to look like her old self at Flushing Meadows. She had lost 13 of 16 matches in WTA and Fed Cup play heading into the U.S. Open. That's in stark contrast to her 2014 season, when she made the Wimbledon final and the semifinals at the Australian Open and French Open.

Bouchard fired six aces in the back-and-forth match, and broke Cibulkova four times on 11 opportunities.

"Continuing to believe, putting my head down, working hard, trying just to regain that confidence, that belief," Bouchard said of her turnaround tournament.

"I mean, [it's] nothing specific. It's not like a magical word or something you can just do overnight. I've been trying the whole year to play well, [it] just doesn't always happen. So I'm glad, though, that I seem to have found more of my rhythm."

The native of Westmount, Que., saved 12 of 16 break points against.

"It was just such a battle," Bouchard said. "I knew going in that she was going to be like that. She really put a lot of pressure on me actually. She was really going for her shots and swinging.

"A lot of times I couldn't dominate the way I wanted to. I just stayed in there. In the third [set] I tried to stay calm. I told myself that I don't have energy to spare on being negative, so I need to save all my energy."

Next up for Bouchard is Italy's Roberta Vinci, who beat the Canadian 6-1, 6-0 in the second round of a U.S. Open tuneup in New Haven, Conn., last week.

Serena's comeback keeps Grand Slam try alive

Can't count out Serena Williams, no matter how big the deficit, no matter how off-target her strokes, no matter how much the pressure might be mounting as she bids for a calendar-year Grand Slam.

Eight times this season at major tournaments, Williams has dropped the opening set. Eight times, she has won.

The latest comeback was Friday night, when Williams figured out a way to deal with a tricky opponent and get her own game going before it was too late, eventually emerging to grab the last eight games for a 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 victory over Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

"I'm not trying to live on the edge," Williams said with a big smile.

Perhaps. Still, no one does it better. And with so much at stake, no less.

The No. 1-ranked Williams is trying to become the first tennis player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in the same season.