Bouchard at "low point" after Paris first round exit

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  • Tough times: Bouchard suffered her career’s first grand slam opening round exit.

    World No6 Eugenie Bouchard admits she is at a “low point” in her career and has not been able to feel like herself on the court following a shock first round defeat to Kristina Mladenovic at Roland Garros yesterday.

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    A semi-finalist in Paris last year, Bouchard’s slump continued as she fell to the Frenchwoman 6-4, 6-4 to suffer a first grand slam opening round loss of her career.

    Bouchard, who exploded onto the tennis scene last season making the semi-finals at the Australian Open and French Open and finishing as runner-up at Wimbledon, has been having a rough 2015.

    The 21-year-old Canadian was recently named the most marketable athlete in the world according to SportsPro but her on-court results don’t match her commercial prospects.

    She has won just three matches since making the Australian Open quarter-finals and despite a brief fight-back yesterday, as she climbed from 0-5 to 4-5 in the second set, Bouchard remains clueless as to how she can fix her game.

    “Honestly, I don’t know what to say. It’s been kind of the same as to how I have been feeling recently on the court – not my usual self,” a dejected Bouchard said.

    “I definitely felt a bit better in Rome. I think that just makes it more disappointing to have a performance like today. So I just feel like it’s been a while that this has been happening. But I’m sure one day it will stop.”

    Bouchard explained how her training, with Sam Sumyk – Victoria Azarenka’s previous coach – has been going well but she has struggled to get things going on match day.

    “I feel like I have been trying to work on what’s been going wrong, and I feel like I have been making progress. So to still have matches like this is disappointing,” she confessed. 

    “But at the same time it’s just a tennis match and I need to not worry too much. Life is still good. Everyone has highs and lows in their career. This is a little bit of a low point for me.

    “I think it’s important to try to move on quickly in tennis because, you know, every Monday there is a new chance. So I’m going to try and forget this one,” she added.

    While the grass season may help her turn things around, considering she had the best result of her career at Wimbledon last season, Bouchard is not expecting miracles.

    “At this point I have no expectations. Just going to take it one day at a time.”

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