PARIS – Genie Bouchard believes the French Open could be her slump buster. The 21-year-old Canadian arrived in Paris having lost seven of eight matches since mid-March. She did, however, break a six-match skid two weeks ago at an event in Rome and feels like she's close to turning a corner. 

"I feel, recently, I have done better on the practice court and it's slowly starting to translate onto the match court," Bouchard told TSN. "It's not quite where I want it to be, of course, but I've taken steps in the right direction recently and, at the end of the day, all I really want to do is improve. Hopefully I can show that more on the match court and take one baby step at a time."

Bouchard will look to take another baby step forward on Tuesday when she faces France's Kristina Mladenovic, ranked 44th, in her first-round match at Roland Garros. 

"I'm expecting the crowd to be against me, which is fine," Bouchard said with a smile. "I like the challenge of that. I know that she can have some big weapons and some big shots and she'll probably be pretty energized with that crowd behind her. I'm just going to go out there and go for it."

Mladenovic made the finals of a tune-up event in Strasbourg last week and has proven to be a giant killer at her home slam in the past - taking down No. 2 seed Li Na in the first round just last year. 

If Bouchard can survive that tricky first-round encounter then she will be a clear favourite in the second round against either 87th-ranked Danka Kovinic or 78th-ranked Klara Koukalova. In the third round, the first seed Bouchard could face is the lowest seed in Paris, No. 32 Zarina Diyas, who Bouchard just beat a couple weeks ago in Rome. So the road forward isn't quite as daunting as it could have been. 

It may seem strange, but Bouchard insists her recent slide has taken some of the pressure off of her entering the season's second major. 

"I don't really have expectations for this tournament," she said. "It's been a tough couple of months. I'm not panicking, but I'm just taking it one match at a time and trying to enjoy it as well."

But there's no doubt the losing streak has had an impact on the Montreal native, who still enters the tournament as the No. 6 seed. 

"It's been tough, but it's taught me patience, first of all," Bouchard explained. "It's taught me that not everything will go smoothly and I have to accept the lows just as I accept the highs. I feel like everyone has been kind of panicking a little bit, but I'm pretty calm about it and I'm fine, even if I lost a couple of matches, you know, I can get over that. Life is still very, very good. For me, it's great. I'm at a Grand Slam, I'm happy to be here no matter what happens, I’ll just try my best."

Bouchard's struggles were addressed during a pre-tournament conference call featuring ESPN analysts. Chris Evert believes Bouchard's split from long-time mentor Nick Saviano at the end of last season has played a key role in her decline.  

"The fact that Nick left, he was great for her, in my opinion," Evert told reporters on the call. "He brought out the best in her. She needed that extra push and he gave it to her."

Bouchard officially hired Sam Sumyk as her new coach in February. Sumyk previously worked with Victoria Azarenka guiding the Belarusian to the No. 1 ranking and two Grand Slam titles. 

"I feel like in tennis, the coach relationship with the player is very personal," Bouchard said. "You spend a lot of hours together in close proximity with someone with a different personality, different way of training, it just takes awhile to adjust, but I feel like we've gotten over that tough period. It definitely took us a month or two, but I feel like we can communicate much better now and we're on the right path."

Bouchard says the coaching change has been her biggest adjustment this season. In general, it has been a year of change for Bouchard, who also switched her agent. She's dealing with greater expectations on the court and more opportunities off of it. 

"Sometimes you have to even work harder the following year," said ESPN analyst Mary Joe Fernandez. "It's hard to have your breakthrough, but it's even harder to maintain that level. Not everybody handles the pressure the same way. She's a great competitor. She fights. But right now she has no confidence. She's in a slump. She really needs to figure out a way to control the nerves. The matches that I've seen her, she gets leads and she just can't finish the sets off. She needs those few wins, she needs those few matches in a row to keep building again."