Genie Bouchard never arrived in the Philippines to begin her season with the UAE Royals of the fledgling IPTL League, as we reported here on Monday.
But the Royals either 1) don’t know she’s not coming or 2) don’t want to let their fans know.
The screengrab above is from the team’s Facebook page, which still prominently features Bouchard.
Team officials also, despite several messages, did not respond to Open Court’s inquiries on the matter, going back to Monday.
Finally, just after midnight EST (1 p.m. Thursday in Manila), Nadal PR guru Benito Perez-Barbadillo (who is involved with the IPTL) arrived in Manila and e-mailed Open Court the official press release.
As most people who follow French player Kristina Mladenovic on Twitter already figured out, she flew to Manila as Bouchard’s replacement.
Here’s the blurb:
“Current World No. 7 Eugenie Bouchard who was representing the UAE ‘Royals’ in the inaugural Coca-Cola International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) presented by Qatar Airways, has been forced to withdraw from the League due to an injury she sustained in training on Monday.”
The official quote from Bouchard:
“I’m really disappointed I will be unable to compete in the IPTL this year due to an injury that I recently suffered in practice. I was excited to be part of the first year and represent the team from Dubai. I wish all of the players the best of luck and I sincerely hope to be healthy and back part of the IPTL next year.”
The official quote from longtime Indian doubles star Mahesh Bhupathi, one of the league’s leading figures:
“Genie’s exit from the IPTL is disappointing news but we’re glad that Kristina was readily available to take her place. We wish Genie a quick recovery. We look forward to her joining us in season two.”
Bouchard remains on the Royals’ website:
The absent Canadian has, however, was removed from the Royals’ roster on the main IPTL page on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Bouchard was in south Florida Wednesday, working out along with trainer Scott Byrnes in the gym she generally uses when she’s been training in the area.
So, it seems, exhibitions have the same policies as legitimate Tour events sometimes do when it comes to announcing high-profile player withdrawals.
They like to sell all the tickets they possibly can before doing it.
Speaking of which, you can stream the IPTL matches in the U.S., or watch them on satellite networks like DirecTV or Dish.
The price points, in a world where people demand everything for free (or steal it) are going to be a challenge: $9.95 U.S. per match, or $69.95 for the entire season.
That’s pretty steep. You can get an entire season of Davis Cup and Fed Cup (the first round of the Davis Cup World Group alone features eight streamed ties) for about that much. And for less than twice that, you can get an ENTIRE SEASON of TennisTV (and people still dodge both those very high-value efforts for the glitchy, but free, pirated streams). And those matches count.
Still, there are some intriguing aspects to this – how the fans will deal with the shot clock (and the players, too) is something worth tracking.
From the looks of it, it may only be available in the U.S. although once you get to the page where you can order it, it says “available in all countries.” When you sign up for a log-in account, the only “country” option is the U.S. (you can just click on it with that option and it will still give you an account, even if the area code in your indicated telephone number is obviously from outside the States).
We’re confirming this and will update when we receive a response.
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