Eugenie Bouchard's Star Is Back on Its Rising Trajectory

Eugenie Bouchard had not been enjoying the most fruitful year of her professional tennis career. At one point, she lost 10 of 11 matches. Entering the U.S. Open, she had not won consecutive matches since March.(Serena Rallies to Last 16)

Still considered one of the sport's rising stars, with magazine spreads and endorsement deals and all the outsize expectations that are unavoidable for a player of her stature, Bouchard arrived in Queens merely hoping to reassemble her confidence.(Djokovic on Top of his Game)

With a 7-6 (9), 4-6, 6-3 victory over Dominika Cibulkova on Friday, Bouchard, seeded No. 25, advanced to the fourth round and served notice that she is coping with some of her recent struggles.(Sania Crashes Out)

"It's huge," Bouchard, 21, said in an on-court interview after the match. "I love the U.S. Open."(Venus Eases Serena's Path)

As temperatures dropped to the low 80s at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, making the conditions more bearable after four straight days of molten heat, the afternoon was just as significant for another player - for entirely different reasons.(Paes Knocked Out)

Anett Kontaveit, a 19-year-old Estonian, continued her unlikely run, advancing to the round of 16 with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-0 win over Madison Brengle. Kontaveit, ranked No. 152, has won six matches at her first U.S. Open: three in qualifying, three in the main draw.(Cilic Enters 4th Round)

Next up? Venus Williams, a two-time champion who won her third-round match over No. 12 Belinda Bencic, 6-3, 6-4.

"I haven't even gotten my head around the fourth round," Kontaveit said. "This was not what I was expecting."

Kontaveit's odyssey at the Open began Aug. 26, when she played her first qualifying match on Court 16. Kontaveit wasted little time in defeating Stephanie Vogt in straight sets, and her march to the main draw had begun.

Her stay in New York has lasted longer than expected, not that she minds. Kontaveit, who had 48 winners against Brengle, a 25-year-old American, did say she was missing her chocolate Labrador, Milo, who was back home.

She has never played Williams, who is 16 years her senior and was winning majors when Kontaveit was just learning to play.

"It's going to be very, very tough," Kontaveit said.

While Kontaveit has gone about making her mark at her first Open, Bouchard has spent the week reasserting herself. On Friday night, she even won her first mixed-doubles match with Nick Kyrgios, a pairing of two of the most scrutinized young stars.

Last year, Bouchard could do little wrong. She reached the semifinals at the Australian Open and the French Open and was a finalist at Wimbledon. She ascended to No. 5 in the rankings. But she split with her longtime coach at the end of the year and began to struggle with her confidence.

She split with another coach this summer and recently took on Jimmy Connors as an adviser.

During her second round win this week over Polona Hercog, Bouchard committed 46 unforced errors. She did not exactly play flawless tennis, but the result was a good one and her momentum has grown.

Her first-set tiebreaker against Cibulkova featured brilliant tennis from both players. Bouchard, revealing some toughness, fought off three set points. She finally prevailed when she struck a deep return that Cibulkova could not handle.

"I think I'll have a heart attack watching all those set points later," Bouchard said. "I don't know what happened."

After dropping the second set, Bouchard bounced back in the third by remaining aggressive. She finished with 39 winners and 29 unforced errors. She will face Roberta Vinci, an unseeded Italian, in the fourth round. Vinci defeated Bouchard, 6-1, 6-0, in New Haven, Connecticut, last week.

On the men's side, Novak Djokovic had an uneventful day, protecting his top seed and position as prohibitive favorite by erasing No. 25 Andreas Seppi in straight sets. No. 10 Milos Raonic, who has been struggling with a bad back, lost to No. 18 Feliciano L~CHECK~pez, 6-2, 7-6 (4), 6-3.

Marin Cilic, the defending champion, had to put in much more work to oust Mikhail Kukushkin, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (1), 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-1, in a third-round match that lasted 4 hours, 11 minutes. Cilic, seeded ninth, punctuated the match by throwing his fist in the air and screaming at his courtside supporters. It had been a test.

"Over time, things got better," Cilic said. "So that's a positive thing."

Kukushkin was exhausted by the end. He grabbed his two oversize tennis bags, slung one over each shoulder and lumbered off the court at Louis Armstrong Stadium. He practically bowed under the weight of his bags.

It was the second straight marathon for Kukushkin, who was unseeded and had gone five sets Wednesday in a second-round win over No. 17 Grigor Dimitrov. On Friday, Kukushkin nearly managed to outslug Cilic from the baseline. But after winning the fourth-set tiebreaker, Kukushkin crumbled.

Cilic said he could sense that Kukushkin was struggling physically, and while that seemed to work in Kukushkin's favor in the fourth set - with little to lose, he blasted winners - Cilic adjusted. He said he drew confidence from his past success here.

"It always has some weight to it," Cilic said. "Playing on the big court with a full house, that's going to give you some extra motivation in situations like today."

Beno~CHECK~t Paire, who upset No. 4 Kei Nishikori in the first round, moved to the round of 16 at a major for the first time with a 7-6 (3), 6-1, 6-1 victory over No. 26 Tommy Robredo. Paire's win set up a fourth-round meeting against No. 19 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a fellow Frenchman who advanced Friday by defeating Sergiy Stakhovsky, 6-3, 7-5, 6-2.