Wimbledon: Reuniting with her old coach has inspired Eugenie Bouchard, says Nick Bollettieri

Canadian has struggled for form since reaching final two years ago after chopping and changing coaches

Eugenie Bouchard has shown signs of recapturing her form from two years ago (Getty)

The world rankings might suggest that Dominika Cibulkova should beat Eugenie Bouchard when they meet here in the third round, but on grass in particular there are so many other factors that come into consideration. Bouchard, who was runner-up here two years ago, proved that with her victory over Johanna Konta on Thursday.

Boy, was I impressed with Bouchard. She’s been through some difficult times since she lost to Petra Kvitova in the 2014 final on Centre Court, but against Konta I thought she was looking like she did two years ago. She seems to have got back a lot of her old confidence.

When she had that great run here in 2014 I thought she looked like she was going to be the next great champion, but something went wrong. At the end of that year she parted company with Nick Saviano, who had been her coach as she rose through the junior ranks, and 2015 was a year to forget.

She has chopped and changed coaches since she split from Nick and that tells its own story. The whole relationship between a player, her family and her coach can be a precarious one, but if you can get those three elements to work together, the sky’s the limit if you have as much talent as Bouchard.

I saw her a couple of months ago, when she visited the IMG Academy in Florida. At that stage she was working with Thomas Hogstedt. Now, however, she is back working with Saviano and he seems to be helping turn her fortunes around.

Nick has been a good friend of mine for many years. He knows the game inside out and what he did for her in her early years showed that he is the coach for her. I’m very glad to see them back together.

Holy cow, Bouchard played well against Konta. I loved the way she was bouncing around at the net before the match. You could see that she was ready to go.

As the world No 18 Cibulkova is ranked 30 places above Bouchard, but the Canadian has won both their previous encounters. In her eight previous appearances at Wimbledon Cibulkova has gone beyond the third round only once.

Coaching report

If you’ll forgive me for saying this, I told you so. I warned here that Stan Wawrinka could be vulnerable against Juan Martin del Potro and so it proved. Stan just isn’t in the right frame of mind at the moment and seems to have lost confidence, while Juan Martin started to look like the player he was when he beat both Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer to win the US Open in 2009.

After his wrist surgery Del Potro plays slice on most of his backhands, but I was delighted to see him hitting some shots two-handed.

Instead it was Wawrinka’s one-handed backhand that faltered. When Del Potro was slicing the ball I was surprised to see Wawrinka hitting slices back. To my mind he should have been coming forward and attacking. That’s what I always used to tell Andre Agassi when he got into those situations: “If your opponent is constantly hitting slices into your backhand, come forward, baby, and just whack that ball.”

Juan Martin del Potro commiserates with Stan Wawrinka at the net (Getty)

I love watching some of the single-handed backhands on the tour, but for the most part today’s players hit the shot two-handed. Look at Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, the two best players in the world this year: they both play double-handed backhands. I think that tells you something.

If you want to see some unconventional strokes, look no further than Monica Niculescu. Watching her, I couldn’t help thinking about my buddy Brad Gilbert. The Romanian’s shots are almost as unorthodox as his. You wouldn’t find them in any coaching manuals. The way she holds her racket up reminds me of a race jockey with her whip raised. Brad and Monica should play mixed doubles together. They would sure confuse the opposition.

Thirty-one years ago my player Anne White shocked Wimbledon with her one-piece leotard. I couldn’t help thinking of her when I watched Dustin Brown showing off his muscles in his sleeveless “Tarzan” shirt when he played Nick Kyrgios. His tennis was pretty good, too.

The IMG Academy Bollettieri Tennis progamme has developed champions at every level of the game.