Swiss eighth seed Timea Bacsinszky has recovered from a shaky start and a nervy finish to beat Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard 6-4 6-4 in the French Open second round.

Bacsinszky, who reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros last year, was 4-1 down in Thursday’s opening set, as 2014 runner-up Bouchard came out firing, then bagged 10 games in a row as her 47th-ranked opponent melted down on Court Philippe Chatrier.

Bouchard, who also reached the 2014 Wimbledon final and climbed as high as fifth in the world before slumping, clawed back from 0-5 down in the second set but a relieved Bacsinszky finally sealed victory.

While it was disappointing defeat for Bouchard, who suffered a head injury when slipping over in the locker rooms at the 2015 US Open and had struggled for form since, there were glimpses of the form that took her to consecutive major finals.

She even had two points to level at 5-5 in the second set but could not convert either and the match ended when she sent a service return over the baseline.

Bacsinszky will face American Irina Falconi or Pauline Parmentier of France in the third round.

In other second-round results, Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan beat German 28th seed Andrea Petkovic 6-2 6-2 and No.14 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia downed Japan’s Kurumi Nara 7-5 6-1.

Spanish 12th seed Carla Suarez Navarro defeated Wang Qiang of China 6-1 6-3, while Karin Knapp of Italy accounted for Latvian Anastasija Sevastova 6-3 6-4.