Editor’s Note: After the publication of this article, Bouchard withdrew from the tournament.
The rise and fall of Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard’s career really has been well-documented. Everyone knows about it. Everyone talks about it and most of the watching tennis world have plenty of interest in her situation and her ranking plummet.
Everything all happened a bit too quickly for the talented Canadian. Making a first Grand Slam semifinal at the Australian Open just two years after her Wimbledon juniors triumph is very tough to do. Gone are the days where we see Grand Slam success in the very early stages of a young players’ career, unless the player is of huge quality and Bouchard was one of the rare examples that made that transition from the juniors to the main tour very well. Backing that semifinal in Melbourne up with a semifinal at the French Open and a first major final at Wimbledon were also two special achievements for Bouchard, but again, it felt like the overnight success she experienced really did come at a fast pace, and she has since fallen from a career high ranking of No. 4 in the world to just outside the World’s Top 100 in the space of four years, which is one of the bigger ranking drops seen from one of tennis’ most high profile players.
The big question is whether Bouchard can reach those lofty heights again. With the right coaching set up, the right hunger and the right application, anything really is possible. Not every player has experienced what Bouchard has on a tennis court. She’s seen the highs and she’s experienced the unfortunate lows, so now begs the question of whether she can get a great run of form, a good string of success in multiple tournaments close by and really put the hard yards in to change her fortunes. Bouchard did initially go the route of attaining wild cards into the bigger events to try to prop that ranking up quickly, but now is battling away in qualifying rounds of a lot of these events, and the next tournament she will be doing that in is at the wonderful WTA event in Linz, Austria. I think the Canadian really has gone the right way in terms of the next step in her process of recovery. She’s taken a step down in level in terms of the prestige of an event, playing a triplet of 100k ITF events to get some match wins under her belt, and I think that really shows her mentality for the fight and for the struggle–that she’s willing to do everything it takes to remove herself from a disappointing situation to a better one. She’s always had the game to upset the apple cart. She has the right aggressive mindset, through taking all the time away from her opponent, but she needs to apply the necessary consistency to what is a ready-made game to be at least a regular Top-50 player on tour, there’s no doubt about that.
Qualifying rounds at these tournaments are a mile away from her desired destination, but people forget that the quality on offer at a lot of the qualifying rounds of tour events are high. There are players, like Bouchard, who are willing to go that extra mile to put their face in the main draws on a regular basis, and maybe Bouchard needs to drop down in level to get where she really wants to be. I think this particular tournament in Linz will be the perfect time to gain some momentum. I actually believe the end of this 2018 season is a perfect starting block for Bouchard to really turn things around, because she’s more than capable of it
She played a few good matches in Asia in recent weeks. Not as many as she would have liked, but an inspired performance from Japan’s Nao Hibino was what was required to get the job done, but Bouchard’s level wasn’t far off and was a vast improvement over some of her matches in recent years.
Like I said, Bouchard’s resilience and test of character is something that many people have talked about. We’ve seen her achieve very big things on a tennis court back in 2014, when she was at her best, but the true test of one’s character is turning things around on day’s where things aren’t going to plan and I still think she is finding the best Bouchard out on the court. The worry for many is that the longer the wait for that resurgence does prolong, the harder it is going to be to remember what you once achieved and to try to reinvigorate her career to a certain extent. It is easy to ask a talented player to turn things around in the blink of an eye, but it has been four years of struggle for Bouchard and that is a lot of mental baggage for a player to really withstand. Every player is human.
Stability really is the key for Bouchard. A sequence of good wins will help her confidence and a strong finish to the year is ever so vital. It allows her to build on something for the 2019 season and that may spur her on to have that little bit extra belief in the thing she is doing, not just on court, but off court is starting to pay off. Some of the performances have been there, but it is a results driven business and a positive week of good wins in Linz will do her the world of good. There’s no reason why Bouchard can’t be at least back in the Top-50, but she will need to show a great show of character, determination and of course have a little bit of luck along the way.
Main Photo from Getty
