The Eugenie Bouchard struggles continue

No. 56 ranked Eugenie Bouchard lost in QF to 21 year old Victoria Duval of USA ranked 896, yes, 896. As shocking as the loss may sound of the once ‘Future Star’, it is a loss occurring in $80,000 ITF Indian Harbour Beach, FL tournament. It is one of the lowest tournament level in the World for a professional tennis player to play. Eugenie Bouchard seems to be hitting new lows with every tournament she plays.

In 2014, 20-year old Bouchard reached a career high ranking of 5 in October. After reaching the SFs in Australian Open & Roland Garros and Final in Wimbledon, everyone thought she was the next big star in WTA. Her only title came in 2014. Bouchard reached QF in Australian Open in 2015 & since then her performance in Grand Slams has dropped drastically. She is consistently losing in the early rounds of Grand Slam tournaments since 2015 Australian Open. Her year-end ranking has dropped from 7 in 2014 to 46 in 2016. She is currently ranked a lowly 56 in the world. Bouchard’s Win-Loss since her ‘breakthrough’ season in 2014 is 50-50 (50% win rate). She reached only 2 finals since 2014 (both in 2015).

Although Bouchard has not been making winning headlines on court, she is very much among the headlines for her off court activities. Such as, In February 2017 she agreed on a date with a university student after she lost a bet on The Super Bowl on twitter. Bouchard is also one of the most marketable Female Athletes in the World. She has been on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Bouchard also has been having a great following on the social media. She has millions of followers on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. All these suggest that she might be lacking in focus on her game.

Eugenie Bouchard has also changed many coaches in recent times. Her game isn’t as good as her best in 2014. Bouchard’s game has become very error-prone. This in turn has led to loss in confidence. Bouchard has also been in lawsuit against the USTA. The lawsuit is regarding the fall and concussion suffered during the 2015 US Open. The many off court activities has deteriorated Bouchard’s game and also her focus on the game.

The 23 year old Canadian needs to find a way to get through this quite a long rough patch as soon as possible. Otherwise she may not be remembered for her tennis in years to come. What she does and how she overcomes this is for all of us to see.