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MONTREAL – Genie Bouchard and Carson Branstine are just 6 1/2 years apart in age – not even half a generation, in tennis terms.

But on Monday night in Montreal, Bouchard will leave the sport (unless she wins), while Branstine announces her arrival.

At 31, Bouchard has for all intents and purposes been off the scene for years. She struggled in the rankings, got an offer she couldn’t refuse (none of us would) to play a sport she had but a passing acquaintance with in pickleball. And now, she’ll say goodbye when she’s eliminated from the Omnium Banque Nationale.

It may come Monday night against Emiliana Arango of Colombia. It might not. All to be discovered.

This will be Bouchard’s 15th appearance at the event; she has played it every year except between 2020 and 2022.

It will be the first career main draw for Branstine, who playd in qualifying in 2017, 2018, 2019 and a year ago – and lost in the first round each time.

Following Bouchard on court will be Branstine, who turns 25 in a little over a month but is, in a very real sense, just starting out.

She plays Maria Sakkari, who until a couple of encouraging wins last week in Washington, D.C. was arguably having a worse season than Branstine, who is a southern Californian patriated to Canada in 2017 because of her Toronto-born mother.

As it happens, Bouchard and Branstine practiced together on Saturday.

Here’s what it looked like.

Bouchard trying to enjoy the moment

Bouchard hasn’t played much in the last few years; from what we hear, her contract with clothing company New Balance requires her to dip her big toe back into the tennis world once of twice a year. Which is understandable; it’s literally the space in which she has built her brand.

Ahead of this career finale, she arrived at a WTA 125 tournament on grass in Newport, Rhode Island and lost in straight sets – after a good start – to an American just inside the top 300.

Bouchard Newport singles return brief – Montreal finale next?

Last week in D.C., she took a wild card in the doubles with Washington native Clervie Ngounoue. But they had the unfortunate draw luck to get the returning Venus Williams and another local, the talented Hailey Baptiste.

So that was it for the prep.

She’s here with former Tennis Canada women’s national coach and BJK Cup captain Sylvain Bruneau, who has moved on to being a fulltime television analyst but is back for the finale.

And her fans in Montreal – of which there are many, even post the long-ago Genie Army era – have gotten every moment she can offer them.

The Genie révérence begins in Montreal (vid)

“I definitely have a mixed bag of emotions. I would say there’s sadness in there, happiness, relief, excitement. So, yeah, it’ll be an emotional week for sure, but I just want to try embrace every moment and really appreciate it and see it as a happy celebration. When I look back, when I’m 60 years old, I’ll have these nice, happy memories of just celebrating and appreciating my career,” Bouchard said ahead of the tournament.

Relief?

“Relief would be that I don’t have to suffer any more. Tennis is a really hard sport, and you have to push yourself through physical pain every single day. That’s something I’ve done for 20 to 25 years. There’s some just burden off your shoulders knowing I don’t have to do that anymore,” she added.

Bouchard’s last semi-full season was 2023 – she played 12 tournaments, including one lower-level WTA 125 and a high-level ITF event.

In eight of the other 10, she played the qualifying but was only successful once, in Madrid. She received a few wild cards into smaller events, as her ranking dipped outside the top 200. But the writing was on the wall; either she constructed some sort of plan to mount one last serious charge, or she accepted the inevitable. The pickleball money made that decision easier.

But in that sense, the suffering ended awhile ago. All that’s left is the adieu.

Opposite track for Branstine

For Branstine, who was a top junior and combined with Bianca Andreescu to win junior titles at the Australian Open and Roland Garros in 2017, the path was far rockier than it was for Bouchard, who transitioned quickly from a junior career that lasted until she was 18 1/2 straight into the pros.

Branstine came up against a couple of major obstacles – her knees and hips (four surgeries), and the pandemic. She joined two college teams (USC, Virginia) without playing a point. And she finally put it all together at Texas A&M.

She’s been sort of making her own way, without really having a coach. But on a trip to Belgium a little awhile ago, after her No. 1 Court debut at Wimbledon after the qualifying, she found Gérald Moretti – a 32-year-old Belgian who played some college tennis at Hawaii Pacific, and then briefly in the pros before going on to work with players like Yanina Wickmayer.

The lefty has a perpetual smile on his face, which looks to balance out Branstine’s intense perfectionist streak.

Different roads

Branstine’s current ranking sits at No. 191, just below a career high of No. 178 reached a couple of years ago.

She broke into the top 200 for the first time in March, at age 24 1/2.

As a comparison, Bouchard did that when she was just 18 – a month after winning the Wimbledon juniors. It was here in Montreal, in 2012, when she got a main-draw wild card and ousted No. 56 ranked Shahar Pe’er in the first round, before losing to Li Na.

But it’s not a comparison; it’s not a race. Every player has their own pathway that’s unique to them.

On Monday night, one of the two might well say goodbye, for ever.

The other, with a tough ask against Sakkari, might well say hello.