Eugenie Bouchard: How can she improve?

Eugenie Bouchard: How I think she can improve

Ever since Eugenie Bouchard won Junior Wimbledon in 2012, her star has shone brightly. It didn’t take people long to notice her talent and her marketability. For many, she was the new Maria Sharapova. Over the past couple of years, Genie has gone from strength to strength, supported by a legion of fans known as the ‘Genie Army’ world over . 2014 saw her reach her first 2 Grand Slam semis in Melbourne and Paris and win her 1st title in Nuremburg. Before long, she’d become the 1st Canadian to reach a Grand Slam final at Wimbledon, which enabled her to crack the world’s top 10. But since then, things haven’t exactly gone according to plan.

In the Wimbledon final, Petra Kvitova was insatiable. She scarcely put a foot wrong and very few could have lived with her. However, the match up highlighted the painful inadequacies in Bouchard’s game which hereto hadn’t been quite so noticeable. Her stubborn unwillingness to back off on the return, lack of versatility and relentless flat, flat, flat hitting from the back court hastened her defeat. Shortly afterwards, she was humbled before a packed house in Montreal. The score line was 60 26 60. Her opponent, the qualifier Shelby Rogers. On the one hand, you could understand it.

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Bouchard had become an

overnight sensation

and this was her 1st match post Wimbledon. But things didn’t get any better. Experienced campaigners, such as Kuznetsova, Stosur, Makarova and Lisicki all took advantage. So too did the top 10 players, Kvitova, Serena, Halep and Ivanovic who all scored wins over her in the next few months. Nick Saviano, the coach who had taken her to such heights was gone by the end of the year and Eugenie embarked on a new journey.

So where is Eugenie now? Australia went well on the whole. A win over Serena Williams, whether in an exhibition like the Hopman Cup or not is noteworthy, especially when you drop only 3 games! A quarter final in Melbourne wasn’t too bad either, but once again her game looked limited and ragged when compared to Maria Sharapova, who herself didn’t play her best. Since then, she’s picked up Sam Sumyk as her coach, the man who took Victoria Azarenka to 2 Grand Slam titles. Her 1st outing under his wing came in Antwerp, where she was the top seed. She started well against Mona Barthel, but her serve fell apart as she committed 9 double faults to lose in 3 sets. She subsequently withdrew from Dubai due to an arm injury.

So how can she improve? First and foremost, I’m not a coach but for me, it seems that Eugenie must alter her playing style. Serena and Petra have their serves, Maria her fighting spirit, Simona and Caroline their movement and defence, Ana her forehand, Agnieszska her court craft. What does Eugenie have that makes her stand out? Her groundstrokes are good but it seems that her preoccupation with playing aggressively clouds her judgement. Aggressively doesn’t have to mean taking the ball incredibly early time and time again, hitting as flat as possible. A lot of women play this way, but few find themselves in the top 10. Eugenie has managed to do it better than most, but for me it prevents her from enjoying the consistent results of her peers. Her mentality and fight are there in the big stages of Grand Slams, but not in early rounds of tour events. Unless your Serena, who happens to be chasing history, this isn’t good enough. Could you imagine Maria not giving her best in a match, regardless of the tournament, round or opponent?

Eugenie must reconsider her tactics, looking to stay aggressive but hitting with more spin to create a higher margin for error. Her groundstrokes work well when she’s confident and stepping into the court, but against a big server/hitter, this just isn’t possible, so Eugenie has to learn to sometimes back off and wait to set up the point. She moves well enough to do this and has a solid serve (most of the time), so should utilise these to enable her to play a more rounded, less erratic brand of tennis. Less errors=better results. Her confidence would subsequently increase and so too would her ranking. Before long, Eugenie could be a consistent top 5 player. I’m not asking Eugenie to become a counterpuncher, but to bide her time. She can still go for her shots, but has to learn to choose the right shot to go for. After all, look at the top 3; Serena, Maria and Petra. Does anyone hit the ball quite as hard as these? Yet they are all multiple Grand Slam champions, fine examples of how Eugenie should aim to play.

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