How Eugenie Bouchard Is Getting Back on the Path to Grand Slam Contention

Eugenie Bouchard is finally clawing her way out of the abyss. 

Tired of being labeled a one-hit wonder, she’s taken the rights steps lately to put an end to her woes and reestablish her relevance.

Those flashes of superstar potential she once dazzled us? There’s now more than a sliver of hope that the 22-year-old can actually fulfill that promise and become a legitimate contender again.

Her journey toward this potential redemption followed a long, winding road of peaks and valleys.

Named the WTA Newcomer of the Year three years ago, Bouchard elevated her game to another level the following season. Like a debutante at a ball, she stole the show throughout the first half of 2014. 

In just her fourth main-draw appearance at a Grand Slam, Bouchard punched her way to the Australian Open semifinals, losing to eventual champion Li Na. Despite the defeat, she became a new household name. And the hype around the Canadian kept growing from there.

She replicated that result with a semifinal run at the French Open. Though Bouchard dropped a tight battle with Maria Sharapova, she inched closer to the precipice of winning a major. 

At Wimbledon, she took it a step further by making her first Grand Slam final. Dominant wins over Top 10 opponents Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep further punctuated her rapid ascent. But the clock struck midnight when Petra Kvitova demolished her for the title.

It’s been mostly downhill from there.

A slump for the ages tested her physically and psychologically in 2015. With a target on her back so large you could see it with Google Earth, Bouchard struggled with the burden of expectation and how to balance it with her new-found celebrity.

Following a rout at the hands of Sharapova in the Australian Open quarterfinals, she’d win only eight more matches the entire season. The 12-18 record she compiled looks bad enough on its own, but mixed in there were 10 opening round losses at tournaments, including the French Open and Wimbledon. Talk about a disaster.

Spoiler: Her …

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