"I worked really hard in the offseason, so I want to run down every ball and fight to the last ball because you never know what can happen," said Bouchard.
She served strongly, only giving up one break, and constantly put Garcia under pressure with her searching returns. Bouchard also held her nerve well. She incurred a time violation warning on set point in the first set — to her obvious disdain — but still nailed the serve.
Both players gave up breaks in the second set but the 25-year-old Bouchard came up with the right recipe when it mattered.
World No15 Petra Martic was another seed to fall yesterday, upset by Alize Cornet (No60) 3-6 6-4 6-4.
The Croatian had never reached the latter stages in Auckland across six previous appearances, but looked to have a great chance this year, after landing in the weakest quarter of the draw.
She was relatively untroubled in taking the first set, as the often volatile Cornet seemed to be battling demons.
But the Frenchwoman is a mercurial talent and battled her way back into the contest with some crisp ground strokes, moving the 1.81m Martic around the court.
She secured a break in each of the final two sets and was good enough to hang on, serving out the match in some style with three consecutive aces, after two hours and 16 minutes.
Cornet will play world No83 Jessica Pegula in the last eight tomorrow, after the American trumped Tamara Zidansek (Slovenia) 6-2 6-3 in 61 minutes.
