"Tennis was a sample of real life": Eugenie Bouchard prepares for emotional retirement match

Eugenie Bouchard is anticipating her retirement from professional tennis this week at the Canadian Open, as she prepares for a final challenge before definitively hanging up her racket at 31 years old. The Canadian star surprised everyone just a couple of weeks ago by announcing she would travel to Montreal for her last professional tournament.

For quite some time, Bouchard hasn't been occupying the headlines of world tennis, due to recurring injuries that never truly allowed her to perform consistently for most of her career. The former world No. 4 leaves behind a career where she reached 8 finals, winning her sole title at the Nuremberg Open in 2014.

The Canadian received a wildcard from the organizers to participate in the Canadian Open one last time and have a grand farewell in front of her home crowd. "I think all good things come to an end. I love tennis. I’ll always love tennis. I will stay involved in tennis."

The 31-year-old player surprised the world when, at just 20, she reached her first Grand Slam final, falling to Czech Petra Kvitova. That year, 2014, was remarkable for Bouchard, who also reached the Wuhan Open final and made it to the semifinals of both the Australian Open and French Open.

Bouchard ended that 2014 season as world No. 7, and at just 20 years old, she seemed like one of the names who could dominate the women's tour for years to come. But from then on, she never delivered another blow like the one she did at Wimbledon, where she defeated rivals like Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep along the way.

Bouchard is enjoying her last days as a tennis player, having had only a handful of WTA appearances over the past couple of years. She now looks forward to a grand farewell that will also give her the chance to continue training, even though she'll be stepping away from professional tennis. "It just takes so much dedication, sacrifice, and, you know, dedicating your entire life to have a chance to make it.

"That’s something I have done my whole life thus far. For me, at a certain point, that’s just not worth it anymore. So I’m kind of at that stage. I think with a little bit more time, once I’m really done, I’ll be able to process more and really reflect on my career. I haven’t done that thus far.

"I feel like I kind of did the whole spectrum of positive, negative, good results, bad results, and I guess that’s what life is, too, right? So tennis was a little kind of sample of what real life is.”

The Canadian wildcard is ready for her first challenge of the tournament against Colombian Emiliana Arango, who came through qualifying. Should she win that match, the Canadian would face 2020 Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic in the second round, who is the 17th seed and comfortably awaits her opponent in the second round.

Recently, Bouchard reflected on the expectations generated by her announcement on social media, where fans lamented the retirement of an important talent of her generation, who never quite lived up to what was expected of her. "Right before I announced it, I was kind of stressed about this whole situation.

I had this thought of, oh, I just want to fast-track until August and put it all behind me, and then 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.

"I was, like, okay, 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, really, unless I retire from my normal office job in 40 years."