Eugenie Bouchard took comfort in her rise to a Canadian-record number five in the world after she opened her WTA Finals campaign with a disappointing round robin defeat on Monday.
The 20-year-old went down 6-2, 6-3 to Romania's Simona Halep in Singapore, hours after reaching the highest ranking achieved by any Canadian player, man or woman.
"I didn't know about it actually until about an hour before the match. Someone told me, and I was like, 'Oh, my God. Really? This is so weird," Bouchard said.
"Yeah, it's really cool. Doesn't feel super, (it's) not like there is anything to celebrate. I lost, so I was just like, 'Okay, I just want to keep moving forward'.
"It's always a cool thing move up in the rankings."
Bouchard's rise comes after a breakthrough year in which she made the Wimbledon final, the French and Australian Open semis and won her first WTA title.
But her debut in the eight-player season finale proved tough as she committed 30 unforced errors and was broken four times by world number four Halep.
"Usually we lose and we're ready to get out of the city and go to the next tournament," said Bouchard, who had her upper leg taped in what she called a "little injury issue".
"I have to practice tomorrow, so it's definitely a weird situation. But it's kind of like we have a few lives here this week.
"It's great to play three matches against top-10 players in the world. You can't ask for anything better."
Source: AFP
