Eugenie Bouchard reveals her thoughts on the lost time and urges to keep playing tennis for a few more years
Eugenie Bouchard, the young player from Canada won her first WTA 1000 level match in more than three years after beating Kayla Day 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the Guadalajara Open in Mexico. She was out of action for 17 months due to a shoulder injury.
Bouchard had been quite inconsistent with her performances and her injury was the main area of concern for her in missing out on tournaments. During her recovery time, she choose to be a commentator at the Tennis Channel but revealed that she missed being on the courts and always felt the need to be back on the court soon.
Post her first-round win, she said that “I much prefer playing tennis. It was great to do some different activities off-court while I was out. Honestly, being on live TV kind of helped kind of fill that needs for adrenaline that I was missing while playing tennis. It replicated it a little bit.“
Eugenie Bouchard further opened up on the lost time where she kept challenging herself to stay motivated as she desires to keep playing for a few more years. She said “It made me challenge myself and push myself out of my comfort zone. I’d much rather be sweating on the court. I can always do that later in life. I still want to play tennis for a few years.“
She further added that she has loved playing in Mexico and appreciated the support from the crowd. She added “Yeah, I mean, as I said on the court, I really feel special support. They’re really passionate about tennis. I think I can speak on behalf of all the players when I say that we love playing in front of people who appreciate what we do. The fans here definitely do. They’re tennis fanatics and so it’s really fun“.
Bouchard made a late start to the year at the hardcourt season since she had been out of action due to a shoulder injury and further recovery and rehabilitation that delayed her comeback. She is looking for a WTA title win since 2014. She had failed to go past the qualifiers at the US Open and further was eliminated in the Round of 32 at the Ostrava Open by Belinda Bencic.
