Eugenie Bouchard is not backing down from her comments regarding Maria Sharapova and is welcoming the prospect of potentially facing the Russian – whom she has branded “a cheater” – saying she “hopes” to play her in the second round in Madrid.
Bouchard, who claimed her first-ever win in the Spanish capital on Saturday with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 victory over Frenchwoman Alize Cornet, is into the second round and awaits the winner of Sunday’s clash between Sharapova and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.
The Canadian former Wimbledon runner-up was asked about Sharapova’s return from a doping suspension last month and said: “She’s a cheater and so to me, I don’t think a cheater in any sport should be allowed to play that sport again.”
A lifetime ban was never on the table in Sharapova’s case, who could have received a maximum of a four-year suspension. Bouchard was asked in Madrid on Saturday about the basis on which she made those statements. She stuck by her verdict.
“It’s my personal opinion. I’ve always played true my whole career. Yeah, it’s just my opinion,” she responded.
Bouchard is not shying away from a possible showdown with Sharapova, who was given a wildcard to compete at the Caja Magica this week.
When asked about her potential second round opponents – Sharapova or Lucic-Baroni, Bouchard said: “I think they both play similar, aggressive tennis. But I hope I can play Maria.”
On whether she thinks her recent comments about Sharapova will add an extra element of tension to the match, she added: “Once I step on the court, everything will be to the side. But, you know, inside myself, I think I’ll have a bit more motivation.
“But it’s very important, once I step on the court, no matter who is on the other side, to focus on the tennis. Or else I think it’s easy to lose concentration.”
Bouchard had not won a tour-level match since the Australian Open in January and was 0-3 in Madrid going into her contest with Cornet on Saturday.
She is 8-9 win-loss in 2017 and relegated herself to the ITF Pro Circuit last month to try and get some wins under her belt. She ended up losing to Vicky Duval in the quarter-finals of the $80k tournament at Indian Harbour Beach.
“For sure, it was part of the process. I made the decision myself kind of against my coaches’, actually, opinions. I told myself, ‘Look, you can’t win a match at the WTA level. This is your punishment. You’re going down to ITF’. I didn’t even win the tournament there, which was fine,” said Bouchard, who is currently ranked No60.
“I just wanted to, like, kind of ground myself a little bit. It brought back such memories of, like, five years ago as a junior kind of playing those events. So different. You don’t need accreditation, all these weird things that just aren’t there.
“See, you’re living the good life. You need to go back and see what the real world is like, grind it out in challengers. There’s some good players there. It’s tough. You can’t just win that tournament easily, so…
“It was eye-opening, a good reality check for me. It was good, even though the result wasn’t great.”
The 23-year-old, who peaked at No5 in the world in 2014 after reaching the Wimbledon final and making semis at Roland Garros and the Australian Open, admits her fall from grace has not been easy and that she spent time “soul-searching” to try and rediscover herself and her game.
She entered Madrid coming off five tour-level opening round losses in a row.
“I’ve had a very tough couple of months. Had some really tough moments. Have just been trying to work through them,” confessed Bouchard.
“I did some soul-searching, some internal self-discovery. I worked on also external things, some of my shots.
“So, you know, it showed me that I had a lot to work on, which I’m still very much in the process of. I’m still at the very beginning of trying to improve.
“But I kept going through it. Just to get a win for me is a step because, you know, I haven’t gotten a lot of those lately. I’m going to be proud of this, yeah.”
Asked what she discovered during that period of soul-searching, Bouchard replied: “I discovered a lot of black, like my outfit,” she quipped with a smile.
“No, it’s tough. That’s the way life is. That’s the way tennis is. Yeah, I just really found out that my true team I can rely on. Tried to really realise what was going on mentally, feeling the pressures. Even though I was losing matches, I still felt pressure to win matches.
“But then I thought to myself, ‘Well, I’ve lost like five first rounds in a row, I should have nothing to lose’. I tried to change my mentality a little bit, and to also just stop worrying about external things.
“Yeah, just kind of a lot was going on. Just been slowly trying to get back on the right path.”
The Canadian says getting in touch with her emotions, instead of putting them away, has been part of her journey.
“It was a little bit of a process of discovering what emotions I was really feeling, whether it was fear or pressure, other things, and actually just facing it, maybe not just avoiding it and the thinking, I can just go through life and avoid emotions,” she explained.
“As much as I don’t like being emotional, you have to kind of confront your emotions and deal with them.
“Yeah, it was more about figuring out what’s going on, why, just being really honest with myself. Yeah, it was an important lesson that I will hopefully continue to implement, to just constantly be honest with yourself. I think that’s the most important thing.”
