SmashDebate: can Bouchard return to the top 10?

Remember the year Eugenie Bouchard reached a Grand Slam final, two more major semifinals and cracked the top five?

That was back in 2014. Even the Canadian herself says she doesn’t reflect back to that time.

“That’s the past. I’m tired of thinking about 2014. I’m tired of being asked about 2014,” she said. “That was already, gosh, three years ago now, so I need to be better than that. I’m just trying to become a better player in 2017, and that’s all.”

Trouble is, come the end of 2017, Bouchard now finds herself ranked No.83 after a challenging season highlighted by some impressive spurts but largely disappointing results. 

Can she once again return to those heights? Our writers Matt Trollope and Bede Briscomb debated that very question.

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Trollope: yes

Hi Bede!

In Australia this week the spirit of YES has swept the nation. And on that theme, I’m gonna continue the positivity and say, yes, I think Bouchard can reclaim a place in the game’s top 10.

I know I’m setting myself up for an avalanche of rebuttal as to why this might seem implausible. But hear me out.

For one, we have to remember how she got there in the first place. In 2014 she reached the semifinals of the Australian Open, backed that up with a semifinal at the French, and then went all the way to the final at Wimbledon. Those are results on the greatest stages in tennis – the sign of a player who has the intrinsic ability to raise her level in big matches.

She’s never been that high again, but we still do now get glimpses of the weapons that got her there. Her hyper-aggressive mentality – early ball striking, court positioning and power – is extremely effective on the women’s tour when it’s clicking. She reached the semis in Sydney. Nearly beat CoCo Vandeweghe in the Australian Open third round. Had that wonderful week in Madrid, beating Maria Sharapova in one of the matches of the season.

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The level is still there. She’s just suffering an absolute crisis of confidence, making it hard to replicate. I reckon if she can get over that mental hurdle, everything could start to flow again and momentum will snowball.

Hit me with your thoughts.

Briscomb: no

I mean, Donald Trump is President of the United States and Blake Shelton just got named Sexiest Man Alive, so anything is possible, but I don’t see it.

She has produced losing records in two of the last three years for an overall win percentage of 47%. And it’s not just that she is losing, it’s the way she’s losing: she has failed to score more than two games in a set 55 times over the past three years and I don’t even wanna count the amount of first-round bombs she has had because it will make me depressed, and I just watched Million Dollar Baby last night. I don’t need that in my life.

Anyway, added to her crisis of confidence is that anyone who plays her knows they are never out of the match because she can go to mush at any moment – so she doesn’t just have to compete against the worst version of herself, she has to compete against the best version of her opponent.

Trollope

Oh definitely, I’m not disputing the fact that in the last couple of years there’s been far more bad than good for Bouchard. With plenty of breadsticks and bagels sprinkled in there as well.

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But her situation reminds me of the one that befell Ana Ivanovic. In fact, the number of parallels between the pair are eerie. Both enjoyed success early, and plenty of accompanying fame, stardom, marketability, adoration, etc. Both slumped heavily after those highs – Ana bottomed out at No.65 in July 2010, Genie at No.83 currently. Both appeared to lose an significant amount of weight during their slumps, robbing them of strength and robustness. Both of them have hitchy motions and technical flaws in their strokes (the exception being the Ivanovic forehand) which can break down when confidence is low or a match tight.

The moral of this story? Ivanovic was able to haul herself out of that slump and return to No.5 in 2014, because her confidence was such that her game began to flow again and regained its former sting. And I believe Bouchard can do the same.

Or is that too much to expect of her?

Briscomb

I’m not buying that comparison. Despite bottoming out at No.65, Ivanovic still had a healthy-ish win percentage of 62% and managed to fight back to achieve a year-end No.17 ranking. More importantly, she played 53 matches compared to Bouchard’s 34 in 2017. As they say in basketball, a shooter doesn’t get themselves out of a slump by not shooting. I know she had ankle troubles, but I think it’s also a sign of her competitiveness – or lack thereof.

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Bouchard probably makes more money in sponsorships than the top five women in the world; I won’t say she has no incentive to play tennis, but she really just needs a good result here and there to keep cashing those cheques.

Trollope

“A shooter doesn’t get themselves out of a slump by not shooting.”

It’s a great saying, but it’s not really applicable here. Bouchard is shooting and missing, rather than not shooting at all. She played 21 tournaments in 2017, and even dipped down to the decidedly unglamorous ITF circuit at one stage – hardly the sign of a player who’s “lacking competitiveness” or just turning up “here and there to keep cashing those cheques”. I think that shows a bit of grit and humility, even if she’s not posting (m)any wins.

Tides turn. Slumps end. Players emerge from dark periods and shine again. And I think her own knowledge of what she’s achieved, and what she can still produce – that performance against Maria was of an incredibly high level – doesn’t count for nought. These store themselves as a reservoir of confidence, and you’d imagine it’s only a matter of time before she can tap into it.

Otherwise it would be a quite sad and pitiful outlook for a player and career that once promised so much.

Briscomb

Well I’m hoping you’re right. There’s no doubt she has top-10 talent, but she’s finding out that talent alone won’t get it done.

I think the best athletes adopt a certain killer instinct and cultivate an atmosphere around themselves to get the most out of that talent. I’m loathe to be a salty old man, but maybe she should put away the phone for a while, as Lebron James famously does before every playoff series, and start believing she is the predator rather than the prey.