Bouchard blasted by her coach
Eugenie Bouchard showed another side of her personality in her press conference after her win over Bibiane Schoofs at the ASB Classic on Wednesday night.
Despite winning the tight match 6-7 6-4 6-4 Bouchard didn’t play well against the world No 174 and was still livid with herself over an hour later when in her post match press conference in Auckland.
‘‘It was a really tough match, I was happy that I got through it,’’ Bouchard, who had been so friendly with the media earlier in the week, mumbled when asked what her views on the match were in the press conference.
‘‘I didn’t have the best attitude for sure, the coach is p .... d about that, so that’s something I’m going to work on going forward.’’
During the match Bouchard snatched at her towel, rowed with the chair umpire, was given a warning for slamming her racket down and got into a disagreement with her coach Michael Joyce when he spoke to her at the end of the second set.
‘‘Every single point that you lose it’s because, I mean, she hasn’t won a point barely,’’ Joyce said. ‘‘OK, there’s a problem, I can’t finish the point, that’s the problem,’’ Bouchard said back.
‘‘No, the clear problem, Genie, the clear problem is your attitude,’’ Joyce replied.
‘‘The only reason you won these last two games was because you buckled down and you fought hard, focused and won the set.
‘‘This is the first match I’ve seen you play, where I’ve been here, where your attitude is f .... d up.’’ Bouchard was asked about this in the press conference.
‘‘Are you referring to when he said my attitude was f .... d up?’’ Bouchard asked.
‘‘I need to be called out when I’m not doing the right thing on court and a bad attitude doesn’t help me play better that’s for sure, it actually helps me play worse.
‘‘I got it together a little bit and it’s emotional because I really want to win, but it’s about doing the job first.’’
For parts of the match Bouchard played well, but for other periods she was dreadful.
However, she did manage to battle her way through to get to the quarterfinals and she said there were positives from the match.
‘‘That when I was feeling like I was not playing well and not that great mentally, that I was still able to buckle down and push through it,’’ she said.
‘‘I was able to end on a positive note, rather than continue on a downward spiral, so that’s really positive.’’
Bouchard was then asked if this fighting spirit means that this was a return to the old Bouchard, the one who got to the final of Wimbledon in 2014. This really set her off.
‘‘I’m so tired of answering questions like that,’’ she snapped. ‘‘I don’t want to look back and wish to be the old me. Even in years where I wasn’t five in the world I was still top 50.
‘‘So I can’t say those were s .... y years, even though the media calls it that. My ranking dropped much worse than that last year, yes, I had some bad injuries, but I feel that since the middle of 2018 I’ve really made good strides in the right direction.’’
Bouchard will play Julia Goerges, of Germany, in the quarterfinals today. The tournament’s defending champion and second seed defeated compatriot Mona Barthel 6-4 6-4.