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From ectasy to agony for Fed Cup heroine Eugenie Bouchard in Doha
Sunday evening in Montreal, up-and-coming tennis star Genie Bouchard was basking in the glow of having crushed her two opponents during Canada's Fed Cup tie against Serbia, leading the team to victory.
Tuesday night in Doha, Qatar, jet-lagged and spent, coming off a major emotional high, Bouchard was already out of the Qatar Open in the first round after a 7-5, 6-1 loss to American Bethanie Mattek-Sands, a match she led 5-3 in the first set.
"I didn't see the match, but I communicated with her before and after. I absolutely was not surprised," Canadian Fed Cup captain Sylvain Bruneau said Tuesday. "She said she was physically and emotionally very, very tired, and wasn’t able to dig deep. It was too tough. ... Even though I have confidence in her, it was a lot to ask of her, honestly."
Sunday in Montreal, there were more than 3,500 fans screaming for her, giant likenesses of her smiling face in the audience and fans, family and BFFs around to support her.
Tuesday in Doha, she found herself without coach Nick Saviano (who will travel only to select tournaments and whose daughter was married in Florida Sunday) and without mother Julie, who had been with her through Perth, and Sydney, and Melbourne, and Singapore during the successful start to her season.
Add that to a 12-hour overnight flight that saw her land in Doha after 6 p.m. Monday, and an eight-hour time difference, and almost no time to practice, acclimate to the outdoor conditions or recover from both the weekend and the jet lag.
By request, Bouchard played late in the evening to give herself as much time to recover as possible; she had to add extra layers and wrap herself in towels on changeovers to counter the chilly desert night air. There were not 3,500 but, perhaps, a hundred people on Court 1, many as bundled up as she. By the end, there were a lot fewer.
The only supporter Bouchard had was a virtual stranger - Nikki Roenn, a British Futures player of modest accomplishment hired as a hitting partner for the trip. Roenn arrived in Doha about when she did. They then met for the first time.
That's a glimpse of the other side of the glamorous pro tennis player's life – the one Bouchard must adjust to and accept, just as she accepts all the good stuff that's come her way.
It's that week-in, week-out grind, and the necessity to produce good tennis every week against top-level opponents in spite of it, that separates the up-and-comers from the stayers.
There are going to be more days like these. Certainly, it was too much for Bouchard Tuesday night. By the end of the match – she lost nine of the last 10 games – she was blasting balls all over the place, most often not within the white lines. That trademark fight, that willingness to hang in there until things turn around, that impressive confidence borne of her terrific 2014 so far, all were left behind somewhere over the Atlantic.
Bouchard was blowing her nose on changeovers; the beginnings of a cold in Montreal certainly weren't helped by spending 12 hours in a plane with everyone's germs. The exhaustion didn't help either.
"We talked about the next Fed Cup, maybe not playing the next week. In her role, Fed Cup weeks are really intoxicating, full of positive emotion and some difficult ones when you lose," Bruneau said. "There's enormous emotion, commitment. The days are long. You share one court with another country, can't train at the times you want."
Bouchard was hardly alone. The Czech Fed Cup team was held over to Monday by rain in Spain, then traveled to Doha – a shorter distance, but with few options that left late in the evening, no direct flights and an itinerary that had to be booked at the very last minute.
Yet Czech veteran Klara Zakopalova, who pulled off a comeback, three-set win against Spain's No. 1 Carla Suárez Navarro then came back to clinch the tie in the deciding doubles, played on. After a frantic trip from Sevilla, she defeated Elina Svitolina in straight sets in singles in Doha Tuesday. Wednesday, she must play Ana Ivanovic, and then her first-round doubles match.
Teammate Lucie Safarova, who played a three-setter Monday, arrived in Doha and upset No. 16 seed Kirsten Flipkens in three tough sets Tuesday.
Conversely, Francesca Schiavone, Flavia Pennetta and Roberta Vinci, three Italian veterans who skipped their country's tie in the U.S. against the Americans last weekend, had to be fully rested. But all lost their first-round matches – two of them to qualifiers.
So there's no magic formula. But with experience, Bouchard will learn to better manage these situations.
Now that she's done and dusted in Doha, the next stop for the teenager is Dubai – another top WTA Tour event with plenty of top-shelf competition.
But at least Bouchard is already in the neighbourhood. The flight – and the time difference – are only an hour.
