Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard joins a stellar line-up for the upcoming Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham as she looks to find meaningful form in one of the stepping stone grass court tournaments in the build-up to the third Grand Slam of the year at Wimbledon.
It was nearly six years ago when the then-18-year-old Canadian burst onto the scene in the Wimbledon juniors, where she claimed her maiden Juniors Grand Slam title, beating Eliva Svitolina–but many people will remember Bouchard for her results at the Majors in the 2014 season, which in many ways was the Canadian’s “Grand Slam” year, her best to date by far.
In that year, Bouchard captured the hearts of many tennis fans when she made the semifinals of the Australian Open and the French Open, but progressed to a first ever Grand Slam final at Wimbedon, where she lost out to an unforgiving and devastating Petra Kvitova in straight sets.
Since then, the road has been very rocky for the Canadian. Fast forward seven years since she won her first WTA main draw match in Washington at the Citi Open, and she is at probably one of the most soul-searching moment of her career. She has the option to dig deep, work hard and try to get back to where she was in 2014 or she can get by with a respectable career, but one that could have been so much more.
The Canadian now languishes outside the World’s Top 120 and is at her lowest WTA ranking since well before her major breakthrough. You have to go as far back as Charleston in 2013 when she was last in this position, but the question is whether Bouchard has that fighting spirit to turn things around for herself or whether she is satisfied with the situation she finds herself in.
It has not all been about Bouchard in this turbulent period. A loss of form has knocked her confidence and I think that has played a huge part in the way her results have turned out. Bouchard loves to take the ball magnificently early from the baseline and is one of those players that tries to hug the baseline regardless of opponent, regardless of the stage of the match, and regardless of how she is feeling. The last part of that sentence is the big one, though. The former Canadian No. 1’s game-style really is an approach that I feel only works when you are confident in your tennis; the moment that you have doubts, and have reservations over how you are playing, the ball begins to fly and the timing on the racquet begins to disappear, because it is so high-risk.
Bouchard has to find a way to rethink the approach, not only in the way she takes to the court, but her whole mindset when it comes to these character-building matches, because that’s what they are. The champions are remembered for the matches they play on big stages on Centre Court at the biggest events, but what really counts is the adjustments that Bouchard makes on the smaller matches that can be hard to pick yourself up for. That is where the true work takes place. The big matches are easier to contend with, because everyone looks forward to them. If we cast our minds back to Madrid of last year, Bouchard played almost perfect tennis to topple Maria Sharapova in a match she wasn’t expected to challenge, wasn’t expected to win–but her mentality was perfect and that is because she picked herself up for a big match. She has to find that consistency to deliver that level for the matches that people feel don’t matter, when in reality they mean even more.
If Bouchard picks herself up for the smaller matches in the Nature Valley Classic qualifying draw, she could make a serious move in the main draw and set up an eventful grass court season for her. The form guide suggests she is a mile away from doing any damage on these courts, but every player has their own starting point to create their own success and maybe Bouchard’s is the first match in Birmingham on Saturday afternoon.
(Main Photo from Getty)
