Bouchard’s return to form shows she’s more than just a poster girl

‘AH, the strawberries, right?’ smiles Eugenie Bouchard, as we reminisce about a photoshoot and interview she did with the Mail two years ago, just before Wimbledon. To say a lot has happened to her since then would be a distinct understatement. The 22-year-old Canadian went on to reach the final a few weeks later and entered the world’s top five that October. The player named after a member of the royal family, like her three siblings, then suffered an annus horribilis in 2015, from which she is only just recovering.

There were coaching changes, a drastic loss of form, a freak accident when she got concussed at the US Open, and a schism with her management company. Amid all that, as she revealed at the French Open, the pressures became so intense she got an eating problem.

‘Before matches I was very nervous and had trouble eating. I just felt like it would come right back up,’ she said.

“People think I was concerned about my body image and was losing weight on purpose. But I was just so stressed. I know now that even if I feel sick I have to force food down. I’m stronger now.’

Bouchard, who had become one of the most marketable female athletes, still talks with the businesslike clip that became so familiar during her rise in 2014.

‘It has been a crazy whirlwind since that photoshoot. Right after that I reached the Wimbledon final and then had a very tough year, loads of ups and downs,’ she says, having revived her form and is now ranked 48 in the world.

‘I had felt pressure to back up my results and prove it was not a fluke. Looking back, I put too much pressure on myself.

‘Losing first round at the French and Wimbledon last year was a shock and I learned to forget about what everyone was

saying. My injury at the US Open was a big blow.’ She is referring to the accident in a dimly-lit, deserted locker room at Flushing Meadows, where she slipped in a bath, suffering long-term concussion. It is still the subject of a law suit against the US Tennis Association.

‘That was torture for me. I felt I was on my way back. It was really tough to take mentally and emotionally.’

Bouchard, a former junior champion at SW19, had shown she was much more than a poster girl by making the Wimbledon final, where she was crushed by a Petra Kvitova tour de force.

The tournament had all got a bit surreal, with Bouchard’s friend Jim Parsons, from TV’s Big Bang Theory, was an onlooker at her press conferences. But it all seemed straightforward to her at the time. ‘When I achieved those results (she also made the Australian and French semis) I was so focussed on the moment that it wasn’t a surprise to me.

‘Jim wanted to come in and see what it’s like but I was so in my bubble and it was completely normal.’

Bouchard responded to her plummeting ranking by going back to basics this year, playing smaller tournaments. While she has not replicated her form of 2014, she reached WTA Tour finals in Kuala Lumpur and Hobart.

Her decline saw her go through an eyebrow-raising split with management giants IMG after just a year, the reasons for which are not clear. It has been suggested she is a target for Team 8, the agency Roger Federer is involved in, although she declines to discuss the issue.

‘The thought process this year was to try to play a lot of matches against lower-ranked players rather than getting a top-ten player in the first round. I won a lot of matches and reached two finals, so it has worked out.

‘It’s been humbling, being ranked in the top five and then being outside the top 40 and not being able to get into some tournaments.

‘Maybe it’s an ego thing. I truly love tennis and it was like being 19 again and taking it as a cool challenge. I could have looked at it negatively. But I was so grateful to be back on tour.’

Her experience shows what a tough leveller the tour is. Looks, marketability, fame, wealth matter little in the arena where ranking points are the only true currency.