"Never had a Christmas like this before" - Genie Bouchard has a unique holiday experience in Dubai
WTA
Eugenie Bouchard's team brought a plum cake for her on the occasion of Christmas, a gesture that overwhelmed the tennis star.
The Canadian, who did not skip practice on December 25, is currently in Dubai, where she participated in the inaugural edition of the World Tennis League exhibition tournament. She was part of Team Kites, the other members of the team being World No. 1 Iga Swiatek, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Sania Mirza, and the new sensation Holger Rune.
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The Kites ended up at the top of the table after the league stage but lost in the finals against Team Hawks, consisting of Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, Elena Rybakina, and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Bouchard got to play one match as she teamed up with Rune and went down 6-2, 6-3 against Nick Kyrgios and Bianca Andreescu of Team Eagles on Day 1.
The 28-year-old has stayed back in Dubai to prepare for next season. On Sunday, she took to social media to post a video of herself unpacking a plum cake on the tennis court after her practice session.
"My Dubai fam got me a plum cake for Christmas after practice," Bouchard wrote.
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She posted another story while relaxing at the beach after practice and stated that she had never experienced a Christmas like this one.
"Never had Christmas like this before," she added.
Bouchard suffered a serious shoulder injury at the start of the 2021 season and was forced to stay away from the action for 17 months. She returned to the tennis court in August this year and ended her season with the WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic in Midland in November. Her win-loss record for the season stands at 6-9. The 2014 Wimbledon finalist is currently placed in the 326th position in the WTA rankings.
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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