Despite slump, Bouchard still a fan favourite
Venus William’s comeback bid delayed by rain at Rogers Cup
TORONTO — She may have slid way down the world rankings, but Eugenie Bouchard is still No. 1 in the hearts of Canadian tennis fans — and, in many ways, she’s still the face of the Rogers Cup.
The Montreal native took centre stage on Monday at the biggest WTA tournament this country has to offer, even though she only got into the event as a wild card.
Canada’s top-ranked player was trod out in front of the media, solo style, at the Aviva Centre at York University, while the top eight players in the world were simply involved in media scrums.
Not long afterwards, the 23-yearold talent, whose rise upwards has for a long while now been sidetracked, was introduced to the crowd over the PA system of the tennis centre, just before seven-time grand slam winner Venus Williams was set to play her first match of the tournament.
Yes, Bouchard is still relevant to Canadians and to this tournament, but she might not be relevant much beyond that, having fallen on hard times and all the way down to No. 70 in the world after having, at one time, climbed as high as No. 5.
But those lofty heights seem to be just fading memories now as the exhilarating results from 2014 — appearances in the Wimbledon final and the French Open semifinal — have been replaced by disappointment.
Sure, there have been some positives this season, such as beating Maria Sharapova in Madrid, but there have been far too many lows. Some injuries, a very early exit at Wimbledon and, back in April, play in an International Tennis Federation tournament, usually a step toward the WTA, not away from it.
“It was definitely a humbling experience,” Bouchard said, an event she said was her decision to play in as she tried to hit the reset button.
Maybe it’s too much of an interest in social media and too much of an emphasis on having fun (remember that date arranged via Twitter), but whatever the reason, the play of Bouchard has been, to be polite, erratic.
Will that change here? You know she would love for it to happen. And her Canadian fans would love it too. But as she says, “it will be really hard.”
“It would be great. I would love to play great in Canada because I don’t get to play here often and I do feel my country’s support when I am playing around the world. So I would love nothing more than to play well for them.
“I really want to go out and go for it, not hold back or let nerves or pressure dictate the way I play. I want to kind of play free,” said Bouchard, who has been inspired by some recent training sessions with the great Andre Agassi.
“Andre told me that tennis is simple and people complicate it,” she said.
Bouchard’s first test at this tournament, on Tuesday against 21-yearold Croatian Donna Vekic, who, at No. 50, is above the Canadian in the rankings, will likely be more complicated than simple.
“She’s a good player, I watched her match at Wimbledon,” Bouchard said of Vekic, who picked up a win in Nottingham, England, prior to the grand slam event. “I’ve got to be ready for her being pretty aggressive with her shots.”
The winner of that matchup will be rewarded by facing former No. 1, now No. 3, Angelique Kerber of Germany.
So while Bouchard will be trying to stop her decent, Venus was looking to continue her rise.
The 37-year-old Williams has had a renaissance this season reaching both the Wimbledon and Australian Open finals and has climbed all the way back to No. 9 in the world.
But, as the skies turned dark and heavy and the rain came down at a brightly lit centre court, the American veteran’s match against a game Romanian in world No. 38 Irina-Camelia Begu was suspended with Williams up 2-1 in the third set.
It was unclear if the pair would be able to continue or if Francoise Abanda, perhaps Canada’s next great tennis hope and a big fan of Williams, would ever get started in her match against Lucie Safarova.