Eugenie Bouchard has blamed her poor start for her straight-sets defeat to Maria Sharapova in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.
The 20-year-old lost her serve in the first game of the match and struggled to get into a rhythm throughout the first set as she succumbed to a 6-2 defeat.
Matters didn't improve in the second as Sharapova's power overwhelmed the Canadian to reach the semi-finals in Melbourne.
Bouchard told reporters: "I felt under pressure the whole time, a bit on my back foot. That's not how I want to play. I feel like I didn't start well, and it kind of all went downhill from there."
Sharapova will go on to play Ekaterina Makarova in the last four of the competition.
Written by
Simon Sinclair
Simon Sinclair
