Home is where the struggle persists
Genie Bouchard hopes this year takes a turn for the better after hitting Toronto court
For tennis players who criss-cross the globe all year, playing at home should be a treat. More often, it’s a double-edged sword. There is overwhelming fan support, but there are exponentially more obligations with family, sponsors and to the tournament itself.
Some of the French players summon up their best at Roland Garros, as the Amer- icans often do at the U.S. Open. Aussie Samantha Stosur, a French Open champion who has been as high as No. 4 in the world, has never thrived during a15-yearold career when playing at home in Australia. It’s in her head and she just can’t shake it.
For top Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, playing on home soil is a challenge she has yet to overcome.
The Canadian has had some of her more dramatic moments — not in a good way — at home. She will try to turn that history around at the Rogers Cup next week.
Bouchard is still just 23. But this will be the 10th time she has played the Rogers Cup. She made her debut back in 2008 as a 14-year-old with no ranking and with a wild card into the qualifying. She lost 6-3, 6-4 to American Abigail Spears, ranked No. 166 at the time.
It would be nearly a year before she would win her first match at a professional tournament, so that was a highly competitive effort against a player a dozen years her senior.
By 2012, fresh from her victory in the Wimbledon juniors, Bouchard (ranked No. 237) defeated world No. 56 Shahar Peer in the first round in Montreal and then gave No. 11 Li Na a fight before going down 6-4, 6-4.
Back then, before the pressure and the weight of expectations — her own and those of others — she played freely and well.
But by 2014, ranked in the top 10 after her star-making run to the Wimbledon women’s singles final the previous month, the home pressure got to her.
Bouchard melted down on court against American Shelby Rogers in a 6-0, 2-6, 6-0 defeat in her debut match. The drama played out before a full house at Montreal’s Uniprix Stadium and many more watching at home.
The next year in Toronto, she lost 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 in the first round to Belinda Bencic.
Bouchard arrived in Montreal for the Rogers Cup a year ago to a barrage of criticism in the wake of some comments she had made the previous week at a tournament in Washington, D.C. She had been trying to take some of the pressure off, halfjoking that she might visit some museums and put off her trip home for a few days.
She ended up going home the very next day. But the honeymoon with the media seemed over. It didn’t help that Bouchard had declined on several occasions to represent Canada at Fed Cup ties played in her home province.
The lead-up was ominous, but soulrestoring wins over Lucie Safarova and Dominika Cibulkova — both of whom have been in the top 10 — offered hope.
But then, it came crashing down again.
Bouchard met a third-round opponent ranked No. 121 and against whom she was the heavy favourite,
With a full stadium supporting her, and after a strong start, Bouchard gifted Slovak journeywoman Kristi- na Kucova with a career moment and crashed out of the tournament.
“I do think the pressure got to me a little bit, especially being here in Montreal, trying to make quarters,” Bouchard said back then. “Also, having all the attention on me three days in a row takes a lot of energy out of me. I was not able to control my emotions as well.”
It didn’t get any better in September as Bouchard agreed — for a hefty appearance fee — to play the small WTA Tour event in Quebec City. Since her rapid rise, she had opted to play the more lucrative fall swing in Asia.
Bouchard hadn’t been back in the provincial capital since reaching the semifinals in 2013.
There was a live video hookup from Paris as the announcement of her appearance was made shortly before the French Open — nearly four months in advance. Bouchard was the No. 1 seed and the star attraction as she played tennis with the mayor and posed for innumerable selfies before the event. But the tennis wasn’t there. After struggling through her first- round match, she was trounced by No. 162 Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia.
Again, there was an on-court meltdown; Bouchard was inconsolable. She left without speaking to the media and you wondered if she would ever return.
But Bouchard has entered Quebec City again this year, clearly willing to face down her home-country demons and own them.
Next week in Toronto, she will try to do the same thing at the Rogers Cup.
The 2017 season hasn’t gone quite the way the Canadian hoped. Just as she was gaining some momentum in Madrid in May — she defeated Maria Sharapova and then-No. 1 Angelique Kerber in back-to-back matches — a bad ankle sprain suffered before the French Open set her back. Her favourite tournament, Wimbledon, brought another first-round defeat.
Bouchard is tuning up for Toronto at that same tournament in Washington, D.C.
She’s treading upon the same path. But this year, she hopes there’s a fork in the road that finally will lead to a happy ending.