Former Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard calls her retirement ‘a celebration, not a funeral’
Eugenie Bouchard wants her shock retirement to be ‘a celebration, not a funeral’, with the Canadian hanging up her racket at the WTA 1000 event in Montreal.
The former Wimbledon finalist announced her imminent retirement just one week before the hard-court event via an Instagram post captioned: “You’ll know when it’s time. For me, it’s now. Ending where it all started: Montreal.”
Most recently, Bouchard competed alongside Clervie Ngounoue at the Citi DC Open – losing out to Venus Williams and Hailey Baptiste 6-3, 6-1 in their opening match.
The 31-year-old has struggled to string together consistent results since suffering a shoulder tear in March 2021, an injury which forced her to undergo surgery.
“I got such an outpouring of support and so many people reached out to me, and I saw so much positivity out in the universe,” Bouchard told the press during the Citi DC Open.
“I was like, ‘OK, wait, let me embrace this time. It’s such a unique time in my life and something I have never done before and will never do again — unless I retire from my normal office job in 40 years.’
“So I’m looking forward to it. I want to soak up every moment of love and tennis and the hard stuff on the court, the amazing stuff off the court. I want to make it like a celebration, not a funeral, and see everybody.”
In 2014, just months after she had been given the WTA’s Newcomer of the Year Award, Bouchard lifted her sole singles title at the Nuremberg Cup with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Karolina Pliskova in the final.
6 weeks later, the Canadian reached the showpiece match at Wimbledon with wins over Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep – before being dominated 6-3, 6-0 by Petra Kvitova.
In October of that year, Bouchard reached a career-high ranking of world No 5.
Another career highlight was competing at the 2016 Rio Olympics, losing in the round of 32 to Kerber.
“That was really a special experience for me,” Bouchard said, reflecting on her time in Rio.
“Looking back, I can’t believe I almost didn’t play, because at the time it was the whole Zika virus. Very glad I pushed through and played because I would have regretted it.
“Any match I ever won was a positive moment. Playing in really cool places, like in Rome on the statue court, huge crowd.
“Playing in front of the crowd has always been really special and interacting with fans after matches.
“I always take the time to do that and appreciate them, because they give us a job. I think they appreciate that from me, too.”
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In 2015, the former world No 5 slipped in the locker room at the US Open, suffering a concussion which caused her withdrawal – something which some believe affected her game in the period afterward.
In 2023, Bouchard officially joined the Professional Pickleball Association Tour after failing to regain any traction on the WTA Tour.
“It just takes so much dedication, sacrifice, and dedicating your entire life to have a chance to make it.” Bouchard admitted.
“That’s something I have done my whole life thus far. For me, at a certain point, that’s just not worth it anymore.
“I feel like I kind of did the whole spectrum of positive, negative, good results, bad results, and I guess that’s what life is too, right? So tennis was a little kind of sample of what real life is.”
Victoria Mboko, a rising 18-year-old from Canada, said she owes Bouchard a debt.
“She was quite a big role model when she made the finals of Wimbledon, that was a really amazing thing — first Canadian woman to do something like that,” Mboko said. “She kind of paved the way a little bit and kind of put Canada on the map in women’s tennis.
“It’s really sad to see her go. I feel like she’s really young to retire.”
