"I want to make it a celebration, not a funeral" - Eugenie Bouchard on her impending retirement at the Canadian Open
WTA
Canadian tennis star Eugenie Bouchard announced she will be hanging up her racket at the 2025 Canadian Open, but the former Wimbledon runner-up stated she was hoping to turn the experience into a positive one.
The Montreal native burst into the spotlight following an exceptional run to the 2014 Wimbledon Championships. After defeating the likes of Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep to reach the final, Bouchard would fall to Czech star Petra Kvitova in straight sets.
Nonetheless, Bouchard's career would take off, as she climbed to a career-high ranking of World No.5 later that year. She would named named the Most Improved Player for 2014 by the WTA, ending the year with an appearance at the WTA Finals and finishing 2014 as World No.7.
However, Bouchard would struggle with fitness and deal with injuries in subsequent years. The Canadian saw her ranking drop out of the top 100 in 2018, and would make sporadic showings on the WTA tour as she slowly transitioned to the pickleball court.
She has received so much support since her decision, says Bouchard
The former World No.5 competed at the 2025 DC Open, where she teamed with American Clervie Ngounoue to take on the team of WTA icon Venus Williams and rising American star Hailey Baptiste. Although Bouchard would lose the match, her spirits remained high as she approaches the final tournament of her career at the Canadian Open.
"I got such an outpouring of support and so many people reached out to me, and I saw so much positivity out in the universe,” said Bouchard during a press conference at the DC Open. “I was like, ‘OK, wait, let me embrace this time. It’s such a unique time in my life and something I have never done before and will never do again — unless I retire from my normal office job in 40 years.’
“So I’m looking forward to it. I want to soak up every moment of love and tennis and the hard stuff on the court, the amazing stuff off the court. I want to make it like a celebration, not a funeral, and see everybody."
“So I’m looking forward to it. I want to soak up every moment of love and tennis and the hard stuff on the court, the amazing stuff off the court. I want to make it like a celebration, not a funeral, and see everybody."
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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