Canadian starlet Eugenie Bouchard held off former world No.1 Venus Williams on Thursday to reach the WTA Family Circle Cup quarter-finals.
Bouchard, an Australian Open semi-finalist who is seeded sixth in the green claycourt tournament, saved two set points in the first-set tiebreaker, and rallied from a break down in the third to advance to a meeting with either second-seeded Serbian Jelena Jankovic or Croatian Ajla Tomljanovic.
Williams lost 7-6 (8-6) 2-6 6-4, following her younger sister, world No.1 and top seed Serena Williams, out of the tournament in Charleston.
“In the second set she really started going for her shots,” Bouchard said.
“I just tried to keep fighting. It was a little bit ugly at times, but I just kept trying to fight through it.”
Third-seeded Sara Errani of Italy advanced with a 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-5) victory over China’s Peng Shuai.
Peng had a set point in each set but couldn’t convert.
“It was an unbelievable match,” Errani said. “All the games were very close.”