Low-profile Bouchard takes on Wimbledon

WIMBLEDON – Genie Bouchard loves Wimbledon.

As in, really, really loves it.

When she sets foot inside the All-England Club every year, she jokes that she just wants to roll around in the grass, sleep on the courts at night.

Well, she’s not quite joking, although the All-England Club’s mysterious Committee would probably frown on such public displays of grass affection.

“I have emotions like everyone. Maybe I keep it inside a little more, and try to stay private about some things. But things affect me, and it’s really special to be here,” Bouchard said on the eve of this year’s edition.

“The first day, I can’t help smiling, jumping, I want to roll in the grass, I want to sleep on the courts at night. It’s like my dreams, becoming reality.”

There’s a feeling the 23-year-old Canadian gets when she walks into the place she says you can’t quite explain to people who haven’t experienced it.

And every year, whether the tournament goes well or doesn’t, whether she plays well or doesn’t, she feels it just the same wondrous way.

Here are some thoughts from Bouchard on the eve of the 2017 edition.

Bouchard will face Carla Suárez Navarro of Spain in the first round on Monday. And, as it happened, she was scheduled to practice with Suárez Navarro on Saturday.

“It’s something that happens sometimes,” she said of the timing. “Our coaches talked, and we all said, ‘No, we won’t practice two days before our match.’ “

Instead, Bouchard hit with Anastasija Sevastova, who defeated her in the second round at the French Open this spring, in the morning on the match courts.

Saturday afternoon, she hit with Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic who, as it happens, defeated her in the first round of the US Open last summer.

She practiced with American Shelby Rogers on Sunday. Rogers was on the other side of the court for those infamous moments in Montreal at the Rogers Cup a few years ago.

Not that it was intentional. But if Bouchard was trying to erase a few demons, throw a curve into the karma, she couldn’t have chosen better.

Here’s what it looked like on Saturday.

Preparation not ideal

The grass-court season in preparation for Wimbledon was not a success for Bouchard. Although getting back on court and playing matches, despite not having time to properly rehab the ankle she injured in Nürnberg before the French Open, was a positive.

Bouchard will wear the brace on her right ankle for Wimbledon. And she may wear it for the rest of the season.

She had no expectations going to Mallorca, where she lost to Francesca Schiavone. And while there were bright spots in the loss to Barbora Strycova at Eastbourne – especially in the second set – it still was another first-round defeat.

Bouchard’s history with Suárez Navarro is, overall, a positive one. She lost to her at Wimbledon in 2013. But Bouchard was just 19 then, in the year following her victory in the juniors. And getting to the third round was a victory in itself.

She defeated her on the Spaniard’s favourite surface at the 2014 French Open, during her run to the semi-finals that year. It was a dramatic, impressive victory.

And she came close to defeating Suárez Navarro at the Italian Open in 2015. That was a period when things really weren’t going well at all, when Bouchard was scuffling under the weight of pressure and expectation and was having some major issues with her new coach, Sam Sumyk.

Still, she pushed Suárez Navarro to the limit on clay, losing 6-7 (2) 7-5, 7-6 (7).

Keeping a low Slam profile

The Canadian comes into her favourite tournament looking as though she has been putting in the hard yards in the gym. And unlike some previous years, she’s eschewing any media obligations that aren’t mandatory.

She even skipped the annual WTA party, a yearly rite of passage in which the female players spend two hours getting done up for a party that lasts less than half that amount of time.

“I still can’t wear high heels! I’m just trying to concentrate on myself, and what I have to do. I stay at home; it’s very quiet here. I adore it. Just trying to keep things simple and not be out in the world too much,” she told Tennis.Life.
“It’s much more relaxing. I don’t have to think about anything else, I don’t have to put any expectations on anything,” she added.

Unlike last year, when the flyaway baby-doll dress made for salacious photo-ops and much criticism from the traditionalists, this year’s Nike Wimbledon reveal will be pretty quiet.

No wardrobe malfunctions

Bouchard won’t even be wearing a dress at all.

The way it seems to work is that when the rank-and-file Nike-ers wear two pieces, she wears a dress. And when the regular-issue kit is a dress (as it is this year, judging from what everyone was wearing during qualifying), Bouchard goes in the other direction.

So, a skirt and top. The top is cropped, but not nearly to the same extent as the tops she was wearing earlier in the season, in Australia and Indian Wells/Miami.

Bouchard is staying at a rented house at Wimbledon right behind the practice court facility. And, for the first time in a long time, her father Mike is on hand to support her.

There have been trying times in the Bouchard family in recent years – as there often are when there’s a divorce, and children are involved.

But things seem to be getting back on track on the personal side, which can only be a bonus when you need every little bit of your focus to be on the tennis court.