“I felt like the old Genie out there”: Eugenie Bouchard continues career for at least one more game but could halt retirement

Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard was the centre of attention on Monday during the National Bank Open in Montreal. The reason behind that was that it could have been Bouchard’s last game in professional tennis, as she has already announced that she will hang up her racquet after featuring in the ongoing WTA 1000 event.

That, however, did not happen as Bouchard cemented a rather unexpected win against Emiliana Arango of Colombia with a score of 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. It was Bouchard’s first win in the singles competition this year, and she was clearly ecstatic with the result. Talking after the match, Bouchard stated that she has already told her family that if she wins the competition, she will not retire from tennis immediately. She also stated that she felt like a ‘old Genie’ on the court. “I told my family that if I won the tournament, I would come out of retirement,” said Bouchard. “I felt like the old Genie out there.”

The day was supposed to be an emotional one for Bouchard, who has had very few hours at the highest level. For a player who became world number five in 2014, Bouchard has now found herself on the opposite end of the ranking ladder as she is currently ranked outside the top 1000 players in women’s tennis in the singles category. Overall, Bouchard has had an interesting career, having won just one title at the highest level. That probably was not the highlight of her career, as it was the year 2014 when she seemed unstoppable. Out of the four Grand Slams, Bouchard managed to play in the semifinal of three of them and also featured in the final at Wimbledon, where she lost to the Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova in straight sets with a score of 6-3, 6-0.

Since then, however, Bouchard has not managed to reach the same highs. In the subsequent 23 attempts of playing in the main round of the Grand Slams, Bouchard managed to cement a spot in the quarterfinal only once. Talking about how she felt going into the match, Bouchard stated that she just reminded herself that all she had to do was give her best as she cannot control the eventual outcome.

"I woke up this morning just telling myself, look I can't control the result, I just want to have a good attitude, have good fight and try to feel good with my shots, feel good with my game,” she said. “No matter what happens, I wanted to walk off the court having enjoyed that gritty battle.

Talking about her overall experience in the match, Bouchard stated that she ‘enjoyed’ every second of it while playing in front of a ‘noisy’ and ‘electric’ crowd, and she also said that she was ‘proud’ of the way she played against a top-100-ranked opponent.

“I enjoyed every second of it,” said Bouchard. “The crowd was so noisy that I didn't feel my body for 30 seconds. And I lost the game after that. It didn't help me at the time. It was electric out there,” Bouchard said. “I'm so proud of how I competed and stayed focused throughout the whole match and fought. It was a physical battle, a mental battle, and it just felt amazing to play in Montreal in front of everyone. I know that I have good tennis, but I didn't know if I could show it today. I put effort into practice recently and I really wanted to have a good performance. So I knew I could do that, but it depended on whether I could stay in the game mentally and not be in my emotions or think about all the things that were around this game and around this tournament. I'm proud I was able to do that. I still have my focus.”