Eugenie’s lawyers accuse USTA of destroying camera footage

NEW YORK: Attorneys for Eugenie Bouchard on Tuesday accused the United States Tennis Association of erasing security camera footage of her fall in the trainer’s room at the 2015 US Open, which resulted in a concussion and a lawsuit against the USTA.

Her lawyers said her fall had been caused by a cleaning substance, with the resulting injury forcing her out of the 2015 US Open and subsequent tournaments.

Her attorney Benedict Morelli said the USTA erased the footage even after being told to preserve it and asked a federal court judge in Brooklyn to instruct the jury that the tape would have reflected badly on the USTA.

“The USTA intentionally destroyed security camera footage in an effort to deprive plaintiff of evidence relevant to her claims in this case,” Eugenie’s attorneys said in a motion to the court.

“This egregious infraction is the culmination of a pattern and practice by defendants throughout the discovery process during which they have consistently played fast and loose with retaining and divulging critical information,” he said.

A lawyer for the USTA did not immediately return a call for comment.

Eugenie, 23, has been playing outstanding tennis lately, beating rival Maria Sharapova in a thrilling second-round match at the Madrid Open earlier this month.

She followed that up by dispatching top-seeded Angelique Kerber two days later before losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarter-finals. Reuters