Casey's dream run is over The end is nigh: Casey Dellacqua during a break in her women's singles match against Canada's Eugenie Bouchard. It all started so well. Three rounds, three highly rated, difficult opponents, three wins. Fourth round at the Australian Open. First set, another win. Casey Dellacqua was up a set (7-6) and coasting to being the first Australian woman since Jelena Dokic - remember her? - in 2009 to make the quarter-finals here. She may not have been playing especially well but she was beating 19-year-old Eugenie Bouchard, a player seeded 30 with an asterisk that says look out she won't be ranked No.31 in the world for long. But Dellacqua won just two more games for the match, losing 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-0, and the dream of a quarter-final against Ana Ivanovic was over. I'm disappointed to have an opportunity and not to win. But probably the better player won tonight," she said. Dellacqua was gracious but also buoyed by her own performance, given the ground she has recovered in the last three months. After injury, time out of the game and the birth of her child, Dellacqua's ranking was out to 180 and her coach raised the prospect of abandoning singles and becoming a doubles-only player. We had all those conversations. And my answers were always, 'Yeah, I want to do it [singles], yeah, I want to work hard'," she said. Now only three months later, I'll be back inside 100. I'm not sure exactly what my ranking will go to but I'm back to kind of where I wanted to be, probably sooner than I thought. I was in the fourth round of the Australian Open. So in terms of putting it in perspective of where I'm at and where I want to be, I'm definitely, you know, feeling really good with where my game's at. Dellacqua started more rapidly than Bouchard, who was not overwhelmed - despite the urgings of the crowd for the local player - but was a little generous in her returns and searching in her shots. She did not look comfortable as a player befitting her rank and expectations. Dellacqua was not playing as well as she had in her first three wins over women who had all been to a grand slam semi-final or better - Vera Zvonareva, Kirsten Flipkens and Zheng Jie. She broke the young Canadian in the third game but was unable to resist giving the break back. The set went to a tie-break. Casey won it. All still going well. Though she lost the first set, Bouchard looked more relaxed in the second. She attacked, opened her shoulders, got bigger on her serve and Dellacqua was quickly broken. Then broken again. Shortly after she had lost the second set 6-2. Bouchard had lifted her tempo and altered the rhythm of the game. It was now played on her terms. A classic modern counter-puncher who ferrets out each ball, Bouchard looked stronger and stronger and Dellacqua diminishing as the game wore. The Australian's unforced errors mounted. Bouchard had Dellacqua paddling to keep her head above water. The third set was over almost before it began and Dellacqua's dream Open was over. Bouchard now plays Ivanovic, the woman who notched the upset of the Open by beating Serena Williams.