On Tueday night at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, Eugenie Bouchard will face No. 22-ranked Belinda Bencic, which will be the Canadian’s first match since Wimbledon.JENNIFER ROBERTS
At a time of much intrigue, Eugenie Bouchard remained elusive.
The 21-year-old Canadian tennis star was whisked in for a brief appearance at the women's draw for Toronto's Rogers Cup, and faced questions about why she suddenly parted ways with her coach of six months, what's ailing her game and how she has digested last year's crushing disappointment in this tournament. In a room packed with media, fans and tennis types, she kept it all close the vest.
News surfaced Thursday night that she had ended her working relationship with Sam Sumyk, a coach she hired after she and long-time coach Nick Saviano parted ways last November. It comes during a season in which Bouchard has gone 8-14 in WTA Tour matches and watched her world ranking drop from No.7 to as low as No.26.
"I'm no longer working with Sam, I've come to that decision," was all Bouchard would say about Sumyk.
She confirmed that she is hitting with Serbian Marko Dragic – who has trained with her previously in Florida – but she hasn't made plans yet to hire a new coach.
Bouchard, however, remains very much the star. Off-court requests for her are still off the charts. On Friday, a giant cardboard cutout of her recent Flare magazine cover welcomed the crowd into the ballroom at Toronto's Hilton Hotel for the draw. The intrigue remains.
Bouchard said she's "feeling good and healing well" after pulling out of a tournament in Washington last week due to an abdominal injury. Unlike a year ago, when she arrived in Montreal for the Rogers Cup as the tournament's No. 5 seed – fresh off an appearance in the Wimbledon final – this year she's ranked No. 25 in the world and unseeded.
Her opening match on Tuesday night in Toronto versus Switzerland's No. 22-ranked Belinda Bencic will be the Canadian's first since Wimbledon, where she was eliminated in the first round. If the Canadian wins that, Danish world No. 5 Caroline Wozniacki, who has a first-round bye, awaits in round 2. If that matchup materializes, it could be the marquee match of the event, especially since another name player, world No. 2 Maria Sharapova, pulled out with a leg injury.
Last year in Montreal, before a raucous home crowd that included the jet-setting Genie's Army fan group all the way from Australia, Bouchard lost her first match inexplicably, 0-6, 6-2, 0-6 to American qualifier Shelby Rogers, a player ranked No. 113. Her frustrations were caught by microphones and she also fired a ball up into the stands.
"Montreal last year was very hectic for me. It was my first tournament since making the Wimbledon final, and obviously being in the city I grew up in was crazy, and I had to manage it," Bouchard recounted. "I was dealing with a lot of things off the court as well as on the court, so it was a real learning process for me."
She made the semi-finals of her first three Grand Slam events of 2014, which provided must-see television. She landed in the year-end WTA Finals and quickly became a household name. She then chose not to renew with Lagardère, the agency that had handled her interests since she was 13. She signed a deal with IMG – with the same agent who also represents Serena Williams – and became a client of IMG Models too.
Her 2015 season hasn't lived up to the expectations created by last year. She made it to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, but had first-round exits at Wimbledon and the French Open. Her season has been sprinkled with losses to qualifiers and those ranked below her.
On Friday, she took just a handful of questions, spent a few minutes visiting a group of kids in T-shirts spelling out G-E-N-I-E, and then was whisked from the room.
"I feel like I haven't been quite myself," Bouchard said. "My confident, aggressive game is something I've been working on in practice and I have the belief my skills are still there. They can't just vanish. It's right now about working hard to get back on track."