Wimbledon 2024: Naomi Osaka and Caroline Wozniacki’s Presence Fuels Eugenie Bouchard to Attack French Open’s Patriotic Bias

The 2024 French Open wasn’t short of controversy. One major incident that left the tennis world shell-shocked was the tournament’s decision to award most of the wildcards to local players and ignore many deserving players. Specifically speaking, of the eight wildcard spots in men’s and women’s singles, six in each category went to local French players while one each was awarded to the Australian and the American players. However, unlike the French Open, Wimbledon has a different tradition.

The grass-court Grand Slam tournament awards wildcards based on who deserves it the most and not based on nationality. On the other hand, the French Open snubbed players like Caroline Wozniacki, Emma Raducanu, and Simona Halep for local players like Alize Cornet and Fiona Ferro. The clay-court Grand Slam tournament awarded wildcards based on nationality instead of who deserved more. This didn’t go down well with the former player Chris Evert and Canadian Eugenie Bouchard. As a result, Eugenie Bouchard took a shot at the French Open, while praising Wimbledon for its tradition.

Recently, Bouchard was present on the Tennis Channel Live Podcast, where she gave her opinion on this matter. She said, “It’s interesting what Wimbledon does, it’s different than the other Grand Slams, specifically the French Open. They don’t only give wild cards to fellow Brits, they go to who deserves it and that is commendable.”

For this year’s tournament, Wimbledon awarded wildcards to players like Naomi Osaka, Emma Raducanu, Caroline Wozniacki, and Angelique Kerber. All these players are former Grand Slam champions, making them the right candidates for wildcards. Moreover, their presence is only going to make the tournament more interesting. Thus, Andy Roddick, who was also present on the same podcast, fully agreed with Bouchard’s views.

Andy Roddick all praise for ‘brand’ Wimbledon

The grass-court Grand Slam tournament is one of the oldest and most prestigious tennis events on the calendar. Additionally, it has several traditional rules like an all-white dress code, which players have to adhere to. With the tournament being a perfect example of discipline, Roddick hailed Wimbledon for continuing this tradition while agreeing to Bouchard’s views about wildcards.

He said, “This is on brand of Wimbledon. It is full of tradition, these things we love that we watched since we were kids. It makes sense we’re gonna honor the history of our sport.”

Meanwhile, the Wimbledon Championships was one of Roddick’s favorite tournaments. He even reached three finals there, albeit losing in all three. The traditional tennis values are still on display at Wimbledon, something that Roddick is in awe of. Which is your favorite Wimbledon tradition? Let us know your views in the comments below.