It has been a long road for the tennis world to get to the 2020 French Open, the final major of an unprecedented season, but it is just the latest detour for Eugenie Bouchard.
Despite the odds and expectations, the 26-year-old Canadian is in the third round at a major for the first time since 2017 after beating Daria Gavrilova in three sets on Wednesday.
“I’m so grateful to have a job,” she said after the win. “I’m so happy to be at a big event. It’s always special playing Grand Slams no matter what. I think with the time off, I appreciate the little things even more.”
It was already a difficult year for Bouchard before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the tennis season in March. Following the worst season of her career in 2019, she lost in qualifying during the 2020 Australian Open and followed that up with a first-round loss in a Challenger event at the end of January.
Her ranking, once as high as No. 5, plummeted to 330 in the world.
She was far removed from the 2014 Wimbledon final when she lost to Petra Kvitova. With semifinal appearances that same year in Melbourne and Paris, she instantly garnered the endorsements and media attention typically reserved for elite-caliber players like Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova.
Nothing in women’s tennis is guaranteed. She failed to reach the same career heights since, unable to advanced past the third round at a Grand Slam event since 2015. When the WTA announced its indefinite hiatus, it was a challenging time for all players. But for someone with a ranking as low as Bouchard’s, it meant she would not be eligible for Grand Slam qualifying without a wild card.
There was nothing she could do in the downtime except work on herself, her game and the occasional Harvard online class. Bouchard hunkered down in Las Vegas where she trains and committed to her improving her fitness. In addition to working with coach Tim Blenkiron and trainer Gil Reyes, who famously worked with Andre Agassi throughout his career, she added Rennae Stubbs, the four-time major doubles champion and ESPN analyst, as her head coach. Stubbs was looking for a new project while Samantha Stosur chose to sit out the remainder of the season.
“[Bouchard] wanted to get herself back into a position where she felt confident again and believe in her game and believe in herself,” Stubbs said. “My big thing with her was how you practice and how you treat yourself in practice. And what you say to yourself in practice translates onto match courts so it was just a matter of getting her into a good frame of mind on the practice court and working on the right things and having her not be so hard on herself. She’s incredibly hard on herself, like most players are, but Genie’s really hard on herself.
As some of her tennis peers skipped events when the season restarted in August due to concerns about the virus or lack of preparation time, Bouchard didn’t have that luxury. She knew she would have to play any and every event she was able to.
And she did just that.
Bouchard played in an exhibition event in Charleston in June, then signed on for the World TeamTennis season in July. When the season officially resumed in August, she accepted a wild card to the Prague Open and a made a run to the quarterfinals. With no qualifying rounds this year, she wasn’t offered a wild card to the US Open. As her peers were navigating the bubble in New York, she accepted a wild card to qualifying at the Istanbul Open.
Not only did she make it into the main draw, she won six matches in six days — including a victory over No. 1 seed and two-time major champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the round of 16 — and advanced to the final. She ultimately fell to Patricia Maria Tig after staving off seven match points in a third set tiebreak, but her week-long effort was enough to improve her ranking to No. 168 and earn a main draw wild card to the French Open.
“I’m proud of taking advantage of the opportunities,” Bouchard said. “There are so few tournaments this year, especially with my ranking. I was very limited with what I could play.
“I’ve tried to push myself in every chance I’ve had because I know there are so few.”
“I’ve tried to push myself in every chance I’ve had because I know there are so few.”
Eugenie Bouchard
That re-energized attitude is clear in Paris. She beat Anna Kalinskaya in straight sets in her opener in the rain and cold on Sunday and fought back after giving up an early 4-1 lead and losing the first set to Gavrilova on Wednesday. She won four of the final five games in the decider.
Stubbs, who is not in Paris but stays in touch with Bouchard through phone calls and texts, says she has tried to encourage Bouchard to focus only on the match ahead. The two set a goal for the restarted season: to reenter the top 50. With a win on Friday, Bouchard will be nearing the top 100. If she were to win the entire tournament, she would be back in the top 25.
There is a long way to go before that — five matches to be precise. First, she has to get past the challenging Iga Swiatek in the third round on Friday, and then would potentially face 2018 champion and top-seeded Simona Halep in the Round of 16. Still, Stubbs believes she’s more than capable.
“Genie is such a fighter and will fight until the very end,” she said. “But what differentiates the good from the great is the ability to let go of a game or a missed point and the ability to move on. When she didn’t have the confidence, she wasn’t able to get past that disappointment. But now she can do that, and it’s such a testament to the work she’s put in over the past six months.
“I think she has the potential to be a threat against anyone. I’ve told her that she has one of the best returns in the game, so if someone isn’t serving well, she’ll make them pay with her ability. We’re worried about one match at a time, but if I were to look at the draw, is there a player that I think she doesn’t have a chance against? No, absolutely not. I believe that, and I think she does, too.”
Whether she makes a deep run or falls to Swiatek, Bouchard’s new perspective won’t be deterred by the outcome of one match or tournament. She is simply grateful for the opportunity to play tennis at the highest level. Once famous for saying the WTA Tour was no place for friends, her Instagram is now filled with encouraging and supportive words from fellow players like Sloane Stephens and Bianca Andreescu.
“I think I’ve had tough moments, for sure,” she said. “I think deep down, you know, still believing in myself no matter what. Knowing my skill can’t just go away, knowing that I’ve achieved success before, it’s just something that I’ll always have. [It] reinforces my belief. That’s what I use when I need to work hard, when times are tough.
“I have especially done that I think in the past year or so. Proud of this constant work really.”