Courting chaos
With Open lawsuit ongoing, Bouchard ousted in 1st round
Eugenie Bouchard’s fall at the U.S. Open was a year ago, but in some way she still is falling. The young Canadian — who suffered a concussion at the 2015 Open that plagued her for months, and is embroiled in a lawsuit against the USTA and U.S. Open — lost Tuesday’s first-round match 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to Katerina Siniakova.
Bouchard — ranked No. 7 in the world at the start of last year and just now clawing her way back into the top 40 — is done on the court at the U.S. Open. But she may not be done with the U.S. Open in court, her case potentially going to trial if the sides can’t reach a settlement.
“Obviously, coming back here, I had mixed emotions. It’s hard not to think about what happened last year,’’ said Bouchard, 22. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve been forcing myself just to focus on the positive. You know I’ve also had great memories here at the U.S. Open. I played really well last year and the year before even. So I was just trying to think about that.
“If I sit down to think about it, yeah it’s definitely a strange situation. But it’s something that’s so far in the back of my mind I don’t think about it on a daily basis at all. I have people, lawyers, working on that side of it. It’s really not something I think about much at all. Obviously being here it’s crossed my mind, but it has nothing to do with my day-to-day life.”
Strange doesn’t begin to describe this one.
Bouchard — ranked No. 5 in the world at one point, and seventh at the start of last year — came into last season’s U.S. Open at No. 25 before slipping and falling in the trainer’s room after a mixed doubles match. She suffered a concussion, with her lawsuit alleging the room was unattended, not fully lit and had a “slippery, foreign and dangerous substance” on the floor.
After having to withdraw from the U.S. Open, she was forced to retire from the China Open in October. She didn’t play again last season.
“It was very difficult for me ,” Bouchard said. “I tried to come back and still had symptoms and probably tried to come back too soon, because I love playing and I wanted to play. So it ended my year and I had a really rough couple months.
“I started out this year at the beginning of January [with symptoms], and that’s about four months after it happened. Obviously I didn’t feel like on the court I was back to where I was.”
She probably still isn’t. Though she said she is symptom-free, Bouchard started this year at No. 49 and didn’t crack the top 40 until hitting 39 in the latest ranking. She made 46 unforced errors in getting eliminated by the aggressive Siniakova, who was 17 of 21 when she came to net.
“It’s is truly unfortunate that a year after her accident, Genie’s focus is on matters other than playing to her best ability,’’ Chris Widmaier, the USTA’s managing director of corporate communications, said in a statement.
“As you probably know, her lawyers asked for an extension; the USTA on the other hand has remained ready, willing and able to bring the litigation to a conclusion as expeditiously as is possible whether through settlement discussions or a fully litigated process. We also continue to support Genie as best we can, including by giving her a wild card into the Western & Southern Open a few weeks ago.”
That lawyer, Benedict Morelli, did not immediately return messages and emails from The Post. But he is on record as saying the purpose of putting off any depositions until after the U.S. Open was expressly so that his client could focus.
“I am 100 percent focused on tennis. I have lawyers who are working on the case. ... I just know it’s going on in the background,’’ Bouchard said, adding, “I’m disappointed in what happened, so I have to fight for what I think is right.”