More news out of Bouchard World.
Open Court learned Monday that the Canadian tennis star advised the inaugural International Premier Tennis League, which gets under way on Friday, on Monday that she would not be participating.
Canadian Fed Cup Sylvain Bruneau confirmed the news to Open Court on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the IPTL Twitter account is still telling people she’ll be there – along with a link to buy tix, of course.
@gdogfanpage @Advicegiver18 @iptl Hi Guys, @geniebouchard is a confirmed player for the @UAERoyals ! Tickets: http://t.co/MXDHTM8INV
— UAE Royals (@UAERoyals) November 25, 2014
Bouchard was due to leave on Tuesday; her team, the UAE Royals is scheduled to play a weekend’s worth of matches in Manila, Philippines over the weekend: against Maria Sharapova’s Manila team Friday, Serena Williams’s Singapore team Saturday, and Roger Federer’s Micromax Indian Aces on Sunday.
The Canadian, who shed her coach on Monday, obviously has a lot to deal with in what’s become a rapidly-shrinking off-season.
It’s not the first time this season Bouchard has pulled out of a commitment at the last minute.
Scheduled to play the small WTA Tour event in Washington, D.C. the week before the Rogers Cup (owned by her soon-to-be former agency, Lagardère), Bouchard withdrew with what initially was a medical withdrawal, later specified as a knee injury. Later, having agreed (for a nice appearance fee that increased after her arrival in the top 10) to headline the new WTA event in Hong Kong, Bouchard pulled out of that event held the week after the U.S. Open, the same week as the WTA event in Quebec City.
They were not too happy about that, and no wonder; she was the face of the tournament, and a focus of its marketing campaign.
Last month, Bouchard withdrew from the indoor event in Linz, Austria after playing and winning one match, to heal up a leg injury. She had just officially qualified for the year-end championships in Singapore during the tournament the previous week.
Bouchard then also pulled out of the following week’s tournament in Luxembourg.
So, to sum up, it has not been a good 3 1/2 months in that regard.
In this case, it’s only an exhibition league, not an officially sanctioned Tour event.
The Aces team, which snared Federer as a high-profile replacement when Rafael Nadal begged off because of his various physical issues, is probably looking at its phone with fear and dread these days.
Federer’s dramatic Davis Cup win with Team Switzerland over the weekend and the back issues that were pushed aside for the cause but are by no means resolved, as well as him saying Monday that he was desperately needing some family time, are little clues.
The celebration may still be going on in Switzerland; Federer was Tweeting about … fondue at 1:15 a.m.
Who are we kidding? Of COURSE it’s still going on. The Fed is probably dancing.
I just had a fondue and I want to tweet about it but I didn’t take a picture — Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) November 25, 2014
Bouchard’s Royals’s squad also includes Serbs Novak Djokovic and Nenad Zimonjic, the coach-student duo of Goran Ivanisevic and Marin Cilic, and Caroline Wozniacki. Meanwhile, Brazil’s Bruno Soares on on his way.
Boarding now to Manila. Long trip but so pumped to start playing for the @dbssgslammers and get @iptl started.
— Bruno Soares (@BrunoSoares82) November 25, 2014
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