A couple of years ago, Eugenie Bouchard used to stand out as one of the future stars of women's tennis. Despite becoming one of the most popular players on the professional tour, the Canadian lost a significant part of the hunger along the way. Starting in 2015, her performance on the tennis court went on a dangerous slippery slope, resulting in, as a direct consequence, a low-ranking status that now seems improbable to recover from. Ranked 59th in the world, Bouchard headed to Istanbul, a WTA International event in order to put the wheels in motion for the clay court swing.
The 5th seed at the Turkish tournament, she suffered a severe loss in the opening round over a low-ranked player Jana Cepelova (97 WTA) of Slovakia.
Bouchard was clearly outshone by her opponent
Before the match, Eugenie Bouchard and Cepelova had a minimum story of shared history with only one duel dating back from 2014 at a Fed Cup rubber. That match was played on red clay, the same surface from Istanbul. It was a straight set win for Bouchard a balance Cepelova was eager to match. The opening set in Istanbul saw much more eagerness coming from the Slovakian side with Cepelova totally in control. It came down as a 6-0 set for her with Bouchard unable to find a proper response. The second act had a bit of a drama with the Canadian breaking on her opponent's serve right in the beginning.
She went on even further by consolidating the break but that's where her fuel ended. Once she started struggling, Cepelova stepped into the court and went for decisive shots. In the end, the set went in the same pocket as the previous one, showing Bouchard out of the contest.
Eugenie Bouchard's drama is getting even more substance
A quick pick at the numbers shows that Bouchard's last victory on the WTA Tour occurred in the Australian Open's second round. Since then, she went on losing in the opening rounds in Acapulco, Indian Wells, Miami, and Monterrey. She even played an ITF event earlier this month where she was ousted in the quarterfinals by a player ranked 896th in the world.
It seems that there is nothing left of the player who reached three Grand Slam semis back in 2014 with the peak at Wimbledon where she was a runner-up. The other curious fact is that her poor delivery in terms of tennis was somehow counterbalanced by a tremendous success in showbiz where she seems to feel quite comfortable. At 23 years of age, she still has time to recover from the slump and start producing that mesmerizing tennis of 2013 or 2014.