Eugenie Bouchard reveals she struggled with mental health early in her career but just “did not feel comfortable” publicly opening up about it.
Exactly 10 years ago, a 20-year-old Bouchard fell just short of beating Maria Sharapova in a French Open semifinal thriller but still made her first Grand Slam final two months later at Wimbledon.
After finishing as runner-up to Petra Kvitova at The Championships early in her career and breaking into the top-5, the Canadian was also a quarterfinalist at the 2015 Australian Open. At the time, no one could have predicted that it would have been Bouchard’s last big Slam run as she hit a slump shortly after the opening Major of 2015 and she never again returned to her old level.
Once her form and results went south, it didn’t take long before she became one of the most criticized and scrutinized players, with many critics claiming at the time that she had bigger interests in non-tennis stuff than the actual game.
Bouchard on Caroline Garcia’s podcast: I couldn’t talk about it back then…
“After doing really well in 2014, 2015 for me was a really tough year. And, it’s hard because, first of all, back in the day we didn’t talk about mental health the way we do now. I didn’t feel comfortable saying anything about it. Even admitting you had a therapist back in the day was like, ‘Oh my god, you’re like weak, or there’s something wrong with you.’ So, I went through a tough time, and I just couldn’t talk about it. I made the finals of a Grand Slam, and everyone’s like, ‘Okay, that means you’re going to win one next year,'” the 30-year-old said on the Tennis Insider Podcast.
Nowadays, Bouchard is a pro pickleball player – and although she hasn’t retired from pro tennis – the 2014 Wimbledon finalist has only appeared in two tournaments this year and is currently ranked at No. 983 in the world.
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