Genie Bouchard’s bid to get back to the top of tennis continues to falter.
Less than 10 years ago, the Canadian was a Wimbledon finalist and seemingly a future Grand Slam champion… but is now ranked outside the top 200 and has not played in the main draw of a Slam since 2020.
The 29-year-old was a highly rated junior who burst onto the scene as a teenager, winning the junior Wimbledon in 2012.
The following year proved to be a breakthrough time for Bouchard as she won WTA newcomer of the year, with highlights including beating former world number one Ana Ivanovic on Centre Court at the All England Club.
It was in 2014 when it seemed as though she had the world at her feet, reaching back-to-back semi-finals at the Australian and French Opens.
Bouchard then went one better at Wimbledon to reach the final, only to lose out to Petra Kvitova.
She was still 20 at the time and her career trajectory seemed to be only going up, SportsPro even ranked her as the most marketable athlete for 2015 ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Steph Curry.
But sadly it ended up being the peak. Results started to slump in 2015, with first round exits at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, before suffering an unusual injury at the US Open.
She slipped on cleaning fluid in the locker room after playing a late match, subsequently suffering a concussion that ruled her out for the rest of the year.
Bouchard eventually won damages against the United States Tennis Association for loss of earnings.
Her ranking plummeted from number five in the world to outside the top 100 since that Wimbledon final.
However, in 2017 she became the talk of the sporting world for something other than her exploits on the tennis court.
She made a wager with a fan on Twitter on the outcome of the Super Bowl when she backed the Atlanta Falcons to beat the New England Patriots.
Bouchard accepted a bet to go on a date with the fan if the Falcons lost… cue one of the greatest sporting comebacks in history by the Patriots.
True to her word, she went on several dates with the fan before things fizzled out.
“That infamous moment in my life when I tweeted when I shouldn’t have just turned into this whole thing,” she said in 2020. “I’m in touch with him casually. Sometimes he plays hard to get and I’m like, ‘Bro, we’re friends, text me back, it’s OK’.
“We’ve hung out a bunch of times. I think he has a girlfriend now though, maybe that’s why he doesn’t text me back.”
Results continued to stagnate as she lost early in the Grand Slams and in 2019 at one point she suffered a streak of 13 straight defeats.
In 2021, a tear in her shoulder forced her to spend 17 months on the sidelines that saw her drop out of the world rankings entirely.
It was an injury that even made her consider retiring from the sport.
“I would be lying if I said it didn’t cross my mind because it was such a long progression to get back,” Bouchard admitted.
“It kind of takes a year, a year and a half to get back and then I only play two years after, is it worth it, you know? But I decided it was worth it. I felt I would regret it if I let an injury stop me.”
Since then, she has not played in the main draw of a Grand Slam, losing in the qualifiers and most recently failing in a bid to play at Wimbledon again.
Now she is looking at Andy Murray and his comeback from a career-threatening hip injury to give her hope.
“Andy’s playing challengers and he’s winning them, which is great,” she said.
