Top-ranked Bouchard, Raonic gearing up for 2015
MELBOURNE, Australia — Genie Bouchard is putting her Australian Open breakthrough form of a year ago out of mind as the Canadian concentrates on a new year and a new tennis season.
The 20-year-old from Westmount, Que., takes the seventh seed when the first major of the season opens on Monday, with Bouchard facing Germany’s Anna-Lena Friedsam.
“I try to see it as just a new year. I’m not concerned about defending points from last year,” said Bouchard, the 2014 Melbourne semifinalist. “To me it’s 2015. I start at zero and try to do as well as I can.
“My past results don’t mean anything when I’m going to walk out on the court tomorrow. I still have to fight and try to play as well as I can. I have great memories from last year, but it doesn’t really mean anything to me this year.”
Bouchard is deliberately keeping the pressure off after rising into the Top-10 thanks to grand slam semis appearances in Melbourne and Paris, and a Wimbledon final.
Her only goal at the moment is beating Friedsam — ranked 91 spots below her. The German took a win over the Canadian three years ago at a minor event in Slovenia.
“I know she’s talented. She’s young, as well. I think she has a good serve, a good forehand. I don’t really remember 100 per cent.
“I’m just going to be ready for a battle. It will be my first tournament match of 2015 (after playing for Canada at the Hopman Cup team event in Perth) ... I’m really excited to go out there and try to do my best. Try just to prove to myself that I can get some matchesunder my belt at the beginning of the year. I think that’s always very important.”
Bou - chard has been without a permanent coach since parting with longtime mentor Nick Saviano under somewhat obscure circumstances in the off-season.
For the moment, the Canadian is travelling in Australia with former player Diego Ayala.
“He was someone I worked with when I was younger. You don’t get that on the tour now so much. So I think that’s helpful for me right now.
“There’s that familiarity I have with him right now whi ch is good,” she added.
But as for any future plans: “We’re in Australia together. I don’t know where it’s going to go, but that’s the plan for now.”
Canada’s other top-ranked player, meantime, has something to prove as he makes his start at the Australian Open — with his 2014 thirdround finish a major target for improvement.
“There’s definitely more of an awareness when you make your way through tournaments draws,” said Milos Raonic from Thornhill, Ont. He made a Grand Slam breakthrough last summer with a Wimbledon semifinal.
“There are targets, goals I want to achieve, things I want to do this year.”
Raonic began 2015 with a finals appearance at Brisbane, where he lost in three sets to Roger Federer — a major recovery after losing all three of his group matches in November at the season-ending ATP finals.
On his current form, the 24-year-old feels much more ready to begin play at Melbourne Park against 144thranked Illya Marchenko of Ukraine in a first-time meeting.
“I feel like I’m playing well. I feel like I’m able to sort of organize my game and do the things I want to do, which is important. We spent a lot of time working on fitness.
“We spent a lot of time, through discussion, working on the mental side of things, how I want to deal with things, especially at important moments against top players. All these kind of things ... We had about three and a half weeks to really sort of just buckle down and put in the work.”
Raonic, seeded eighth, comes into the Australian Open with a positive attitude after his Brisbane success.
“It was motivating in a lot of ways because the first tournament of the year, you don’t really know how things are going to play out.
“Every match I played, I got better. I played well in the semis. I played much better in the final. I was sort of figuring things out ... I’m trying to prepare to play my best tennis as possible here.”