Genie and her army are set for Wimbledon final
Bouchard maintains focus amid frenzy leading up to women’s final
It takes a village to make a tennis champion. And Montreal’s Eugenie Bouchard, who takes on Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in Saturday’s Wimbledon women’s singles final, has the entire village with her. The Bouchard entourage has grown and grown through the fortnight. And nearly as big a problem as finding solutions to defeating the 2011 Wimbledon champion on Saturday will be figuring out how to fit everyone into the players’ box. There are 12 seats available in the main section, another seven auxiliary seats if needed. And it should be standing room only. There is mother, Julie, and little brother Will, who have been here the entire tournament. There is coach Nick Saviano and conditioning coach Scott Byrnes, a hitting partner. There is father, Mike, and his girlfriend, along with other friends. There are agents Sam Duvall and Drew Lemesurier. There is newcomer Jim Parsons, the actor from the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory and his partner, Todd Spiewak. Parsons, who originally came into the picture when her agent saw the link between Bouchard, a fan of the show and Parsons, a tennis fan, and did some public relations matchmaking. They ended up hitting it off when they finally met and he has been at Wimbledon supporting her throughout the fortnight. There also is Canadian Fed Cup captain Sylvain Bruneau and Toronto-based Fed Cup team massage therapist Samantha Cox. The Court 1 assignment for Bouchard’s quarter-final match against Angelique Kerber of Germany Wednesday was a particular challenge because of the more limited seating for the entire Genie Army — not the rapidly-growing fan army, but the legion of coaches, family members, various Tennis Canada staff members, friends. Eight seats were available for the higher seed (which was Kerber) and seven for Bouchard. Many of her people ended up across the court in the members’ section. Even Canadian multimillionaire magnate Galen Weston and wife, Hilary, were over in Siberia seating. In the last few days, a host of other Tennis Canada staffers have descended upon the All-England Club to bask in the Canadians’ ac- complishments, thus making the group even larger.
Most importantly, Air Canada flew Bouchard’s two sisters, Beatrice and Charlotte, as well as her grandmother into London overnight on Thursday although when asked during her pre-final news conference Friday whether her sisters would be on hand, Bouchard gave a curt “no” answer. Perhaps it’s to the point where even she can’t keep track. Even in Bouchard’s press conferences, for which she has been assigned the main interview room even as more accomplished players were relegated to a smaller one, a large group of supporters has been a consistent presence. Her mother and brother, agents and, of course, Mr. Parsons and his friend, troop in and stand or sit in the back and observe the proceedings. That is a serious number of people. And through it all, it appears Bouchard has remained focused on the task at hand, that of trying to win her first Grand Slam title. That is no small feat. Bouchard was asked Friday how she thought winning Wimbledon would change her life. “I don’t know yet, you know. I’m still in the middle of a tournament, so I’m not really looking at outside things or focused on all the other attention because I have a job tomorrow and I really don’t want to get distracted,” she said.