COURT STAR NOW IN COURT
Canadian tennis pro Eugenie Bouchard, once ranked No. 5 in the world, told a federal jury in Brooklyn Wednesday that she screamed in pain after a slipand-fall at the 2015 US Open. “I screamed, ‘Oh, my God, it burns!’ ” Bouchard testified of slipping on chemical cleaning spray and falling flat on her bare back as she headed to take a postmatch ice bath. Bouchard entered the room — a locker and bathing area for trainers — after a late mixeddoubles match, wearing nothing but shorts, a sports bra and flip-flops, she said. “I was wearing a sports bra . . . my back was on the floor,” she told a jury, recalling how she realized her skin had come in contact with “strong chemicals, because of the burning.” “It was all over me,” she said of the chemicals. The athlete is on the witness stand two years after she slipped and hit her head in the US Open training room. The resulting concussion cut short her star turn in the Queens-based tournament, she is alleging. Bouchard sued the United States Tennis Association, which runs the Open, soon after the fall, arguing that the orga- nization was at fault for applying a slippery cleaning spray to the floor of a dimly lit room.
After the injury, Bouchard withdrew from the tournament and was sidelined for months. She is currently ranked 116th in the world and has not been able to replicate the success she had earlier in her career, including reaching the Wimbledon women’s singles finals in 2014.
The USTA has countered that Bouchard should not have been in the training room without a trainer and that she slipped and fell at 11 p.m., when she should have known the training room was being cleaned.
The spray was applied only after management believed everyone had gone home for the night, a lawyer for the USTA told jurors Tuesday.
But on Wednesday, under direct examination by her lawyer, Benedict Morelli, Bouchard told jurors that nothing in the 2015 US Open players’ handbook stated time limits on the training room or that players needed to be accompanied by a trainer.
“There are no specific hours,” she recalled.
Asked if it’s her understanding that players are not to enter the training room without being accompanied by a trainer, she answered, “No, that’s not my understanding.”
Closing arguments before a fourwoman, three-man jury is set for Thursday. Bouchard is seeking unspecified cash damages.