Eleven years after she exploded onto the tennis scene, Eugenie Bouchard shall be retiring from tennis “where it all started.”
The 31-year-old Canadian introduced on Instagram that she was going to be leaving the sport after taking part in within the Montreal Open on the finish of the month.
“You’ll know when it’s time. For me, it’s now. Ending where it all started: Montreal,” Bouchard wrote together with a sequence of photographs beginning along with her taking part in as a younger lady and that includes moments from her profession.
Bouchard shall be granted a wild card by event organizers to offer her a correct sendoff, Tennis Canada introduced.
Bouchard’s profession began in wonderful trend in 2014 when she reached the semifinals of the Australian Open and French Open, then the finals at Wimbledon, the place she misplaced to Petra Kvitova in straight units.
Her highly effective floor sport and outgoing character appeared to have her on monitor to be one of many sport’s greatest stars as she reached No. 5 on the planet rankings.
Bouchard was by no means capable of again up that promise, although, and is now far faraway from the contending scene, ranked 1,078th on the planet.
Bouchard, who was the junior champion at Wimbledon in 2012, now extra continuously performs on The Professional Tour of Pickleball.
Tennis Canada chief govt officer Gavin Ziv thanked Bouchard for her contributions to tennis in Canada.
“Few athletes have left as profound a mark on Canadian tennis as Genie has throughout her extraordinary career, things that many thought would be impossible for Canadian players,” Tennis Canada chief govt officer Gavin Ziv mentioned in a press release.
“Her career highlights, which include a Wimbledon final appearance and a Billie Jean King Cup championship, are nothing short of extraordinary and were a true catalyst for the development of tennis in our country. She’s been and still is an incredible ambassador for our sport and, on behalf of Tennis Canada, I want to thank her for everything she’s done.”
Bouchard has solely performed one tournament-level tennis match this 12 months, shedding to American Anna Rogers final week in Rhode Island.
Bouchard’s profession was derailed by inconsistent play and harm, together with a severe shoulder surgical procedure that stored her off the court docket for 17 months in 2021 and ’22.
Her profession additionally included a prolonged lawsuit towards the USTA after she suffered a concussion when she slipped and fell in a US Open locker room in 2015.
The incident occurred after Bouchard had reached the fourth spherical and had appeared in good kind, however was compelled to withdraw from the occasion on account of the harm.
A jury dominated that the USTA was 75 % accountable for Bouchard’s accidents with the participant taking 25 % of the blame.
Bouchard had dubbed 2024 an “experimental year” on the “Not Alone Pod” as she discovered if she may juggle tennis and pickleball careers.
It seems that experiment is now ending.
