After over a half decade of mediocre results, it looks like former Wimbledon finalist and WTA top 5 player has decided to give up on tennis.
Bouchard has not played a professional tennis tournament since WTA Guadalajara in Mexico in September 2023, where she beat Renata Zarazua in the first round 61 76 but then lost to Veronika Kudermetova 26 76 46.
Previous to Guadalajara, Bouchard played in the US Open qualifying tournament and defeated American Katherine Hui 62 63 before losing in the second round to Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska 16 64 46.
The 30 year old reached Wimbledon finals in 2014, where she was beaten by Petra Kvitova in straight sets. She won her only WTA title in 2014 in Nurnberg. Since 2017 Bouchard has tried numerous coaches including Thomas Hogstedt, Harold Solomon, Nick Saviano, Michael Joyce, Rennae Stubbs, Tim Blenkiron, Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, and Gil Reyes.
Bouchard finished 2018 ranked 89 in the world but dropped out of the top 100 in early 2019 and never managed to return to top 100 form. She finished 2022 ranked 323 in the world. She is ranked around 300 now.
Bouchard was scheduled to play American teenager Clervie Ngounoue in a special exhibition at the Delray Beach Open in February but dropped out for unknown reasons. Lately she’s been more active in pickleball.
It appears the career of Bouchard has reached its conclusion.
Her WTA match record is 297-226. She reached the semis of AO, French Open and fourth round of US Open and earned over $6.9m in career prize money.
Eugenie Bouchard · Montreal · New Balance · Wimbledon · Yonex
Cory · March 11, 2024 at 9:54 am
How much money could you possibly make playing pickleball? It’s not always about money tho… sometimes it’s about sweeping up the broken relics of a tennis career and moving on to a new incarnation of tennis. Shocked – she is young enough for several resurgences. Just bought my first pickleballset, gonna go play this week. Don’t mock me! 🙂
Scoop Malinowski · March 11, 2024 at 10:45 am
Cory, I haven’t ready anything about PB prize money or how much the top stars earn, or anything about appearance fees. I will try to find out this week. It’s a fun game just like whiffle ball and miniature golf and short hole golf. It’s really good to see so many seniors playing it every day. It will extend life expectancy for many seniors and that’s fantastic. Looking forward to your PB debut report. )
Scoop Malinowski · March 11, 2024 at 8:04 pm
I talked with one of Bouchard’s former coaches today. He said she had the talent and ability to be a top ten player however what she lacked was the dedication to always make sure the actual tennis was her top priority. The distractions and endorsement contracts were the undoing of not reaching her full tennis potential. Very hard worker, very talented, very fit but…
catherine · March 13, 2024 at 12:30 pm
I wish Kerber would quit tennis too. I presume she’s only playing for the Olympics. Watched some of her match v Woz and it was a journey back in time. Her coach is Torben Beltz which is another journey back in a long time.
As we’ve noted before German women’s tennis is in the tank. Interesting question – if Steffi had stayed in Germany would that have helped provide inspiration ?
Scoop Malinowski · March 13, 2024 at 2:28 pm
Catherine, No, the Steffi inspiration factor didn’t work with Anke Huber too well. It’s impossible for any German girl to live up to the Steffi standards, just like it’s impossible for young Americans to live up to the Agassi Sampras standards. Kerber looks pretty good to me, and she has the emotional adrenaline sometimes which shows she wants it still. She’s done well so far in her comeback.