Former Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard is the latest player to join the Professional Pickleball Association for the 2023-24 season.
Bouchard is currently ranked No. 215 on the WTA Tour and has not confirmed whether she will retire from professional tennis after entering the pickleball scene. The 29-year-old Montreal native lost in straight sets to Greet Minnen in Wimbledon qualifying and withdrew from the French Open earlier this summer without giving a reason. Bouchard most recently lost in three sets to Dayana Yastremska in the US Open qualifying on August 24th.
It wasn’t long ago that Bouchard was considered one of the most promising Canadian tennis players of all time, reaching a career-high No. 5 ranking in October 2014. A prodigy on the youth tour, Bouchard won the junior Wimbledon title in 2012 and was dangerously close to being a consistent Grand Slam contender. Bouchard is best known for her Wimbledon run in 2014, where she became the first Canadian – men’s or women’s – to reach the final of a major singles tournament, culminating in a straight-sets loss to Petra Kvitová.
Pickleball has become a popular sport in recent years. Instead of a racket, pickleball players use a large racket on a court that is smaller than regular tennis dimensions, while the ball cannot move as freely as a tennis ball.
Bouchard is part of a wave of tennis players taking up pickleball, including Jack Sock and Sam Querrey among other notable names.
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