This past week belonged to rising stars from the past in Luxemburg. I’m talking about the great week Eugenie Bouchard and Belinda Bencic had. Both of them either made it to semis or finals at the Luxemburg Open by qualifying. Here’s a bit of background on each, and how they fared.

Everyone knows Eugenie Bouchard’s struggles as she tries to regain the top form that saw her make the 2014 Wimbledon Final, in addition to the Australian and French Open Semis, and finish number seven in 2014. Unfortunately for Bouchard, she suffered a concussion at the US Open in 2015 which saw her pull out in the fourth round and miss the rest of the season. She’s never been the same. And this year could possibly be her worst, as she’s been losing in third tier tournaments, and attempting to qualify in most tournaments. Fortunately for her, she qualified for the Australian, Wimbledon and the US Open, reaching the second round of each tournament. However, she really has not been all that consistent.

That is until she managed to qualify for the Luxemburg Open and make it all the way to the Semi Finals where she would lose in three tough sets to Julia Georges. She actually served for the match at 5-4 in the second set. However, it would not be. She still has a way to go. Although, she showed how brilliant she can be when she is on her game. In Luxemburg she beat some great players, including Timea Babos, Carla Suarez Navarro, and Andrea Petkovic. These are solid tour players. Let’s see if she can get build on this win into 2019. It would be great to have her back in top form.

Belinda Bencic is another player that has had a difficult time coming back after injuries and a great start to her young career. However, she seems to be faring a little bit better in her comeback. After an injury plagued 2017, and a break, she came back in 2018 and has had some mixed results. She made it to the round of 16 at Wimbledon but has not fared well since then. This is why her reaching the final of a tour event is kind of a big deal in my opinion. She played well in this tournament on her way to the final, beating a slew of half decent top 50 players. This has to be a good confidence builder as she heads into 2019 as well.

So, two young top ex top ten players, who are still considered stars of the sport, finally making some noise towards the end of the year. It’s about time. There’s too much talent in both of them to see them do anything less than winning more on the WTA Tour.