Eleven years after she exploded onto the tennis scene, Eugenie Bouchard will be retiring from tennis “where it all started.”
The 31-year-old Canadian announced on Instagram that she was going to be leaving the game after playing in the Montreal Open at the end of the month.
“You’ll know when it’s time. For me, it’s now. Ending where it all started: Montreal,” Bouchard wrote along with a series of photos starting with her playing as a young girl and featuring moments from her career.
Bouchard will be granted a wild card by tournament organizers to give her a proper sendoff, Tennis Canada announced.
Bouchard’s career started in amazing fashion in 2014 when she reached the semifinals of the Australian Open and French Open, then the finals at Wimbledon, where she lost to Petra Kvitova in straight sets.
Her powerful ground game and outgoing personality appeared to have her on track to be one of the sport’s biggest stars as she reached No. 5 in the world rankings.
Bouchard was never able to back up that promise, though, and is now far removed from the contending scene, ranked 1,078th in the world.
Bouchard, who was the junior champion at Wimbledon in 2012, now more frequently plays on The Pro Tour of Pickleball.
Tennis Canada chief executive officer Gavin Ziv thanked Bouchard for her contributions to tennis in Canada.
“Few athletes have left as profound a mark on Canadian tennis as Genie has throughout her extraordinary career, things that many thought would be impossible for Canadian players,” Tennis Canada chief executive officer Gavin Ziv said in a statement.
“Her career highlights, which include a Wimbledon final appearance and a Billie Jean King Cup championship, are nothing short of extraordinary and were a true catalyst for the development of tennis in our country. She’s been and still is an incredible ambassador for our sport and, on behalf of Tennis Canada, I want to thank her for everything she’s done.”
Bouchard has only played one tournament-level tennis match this year, losing to American Anna Rogers last week in Rhode Island.
Bouchard’s career was derailed by inconsistent play and injury, including a serious shoulder surgery that kept her off the court for 17 months in 2021 and ’22.
Her career also included a lengthy lawsuit against the USTA after she suffered a concussion when she slipped and fell in a US Open locker room in 2015.
The incident happened after Bouchard had reached the fourth round and had appeared in good form, but was forced to withdraw from the event as a result of the injury.
A jury ruled that the USTA was 75 percent to blame for Bouchard’s injuries with the player taking 25 percent of the blame.
Bouchard had dubbed 2024 an “experimental year” on the “Not Alone Pod” as she figured out if she could juggle tennis and pickleball careers.
It appears that experiment is now ending.