Bouchard sees hope in home away from home
Canadian eyeing bounce-back talks past, present and future on eve of first-round match
Four months ago, ignoring the disapproval of her entourage, Genie Bouchard made the decision to play in her first ITF tournament since 2012.
Stubborn girl, to go wading into a bush-tier tennis gig. Never made it past the quarter-finals either.
Awake-up slap. A cautionary warning too.
That’s where fading stars cross paths with the also-rans.
“It was definitely a humbling experience and a bit of an eye-opening experience as well,” Canada’s top female player was saying Monday. “Obviously, the difference in the level of the tournament. I mean, we didn’t even need badges to get on site. People just walked up and there were just so many huge differences.”
Kind of like riding-the-bus tennis minors for an athlete who made such a spectacular splash on the Grand Slam circuit just three years ago.
Thought to herself: “Look at all these tennis players … kind of grinding at this level. This is would you have to do if you keep losing. So stop losing.” Ah, but there’s the rub. Because 23-year-old Bouchard has mostly been losing ever since those Slam semis and a Wimbledon final. Save for the occasional assertion of the old/young Genie — like putting the boots to Maria Sharapova post-drug-suspension comeback in Madrid — she’s become pretty much synonymous with losing, and losing early in her WTA engagements.
Yes, injuries have scuttled the schedule. Yes, the Montreal native can no longer sneak up on an opponent — she’s one of the most highprofile (over-exposed?) players on the circuit, heavily decorated with sponsor endorsements if not laurels.
But mostly the downfall has been down to Bouchard — the fragility of her mental game, easily thrown off the mark by a poor point, a poor set. The longer this has gone on, the further she’s wandered from that selfassured, fearless competitor of 2014.
“Well look,” she counters. “Serena still says she feels nervous before matches. So I don’t think it’s ever something that any athlete completely masters. I think it’s more about how well you deal with it. It’s an ongoing battle, really. Some days I feel like I’m better at dealing with it than others.’’ The dilemma is not uncommon for ingénues who’ve never truly known leeriness, hitting the heights, then suddenly crumbling before the strange phenomenon of anxiety and mental frailty.
Sizing up her former self, where she’s been since those heady days of Genie’s Army, she observes: “For sure I’ve learned more and been able to kind of maybe detach it a little bit. Really make it: okay, this is my j ob and i t’s not, l et’s say, so personal.”
Yet she will always be asked, of course, where did that Genie go?
“It’s an ongoing process. It’s something I will have to deal with for the rest of my career.”
This week, Bouchard is very much the face of the Rogers Cup as hometown girl, though of course Toronto isn’t her hometown. Oh, how she would love to go deep in the tourna- ment.
“I would love to play great and in Canada because I don’t get to play here often. And I do feel my country’s support when I’m playing around the world. So I would love more than anything to play well for them. But it will be really hard.”
Indeed, the world No. 70 — a plunging ranking — has drawn a tough first-round opponent for Tuesday against Croatia’s Donna Vekic, No. 58 in the latest WTA dispatches.
“I’ve got to be ready for her, being pretty aggressive and going for her shots. Kind of play free and play as well as I can on each point.”
Which might be at least a tad easier in Toronto than the Montreal bell jar, in this rotating tournament.
“It’s obviously a home tournament, but it’s not home as in the place where I grew up and played tennis since I was 8 years old. A little bit less pressure.”
That megawatt photogenic smile lights up the room.
“I love coming to The Six.”