After a disastrous Wimbledon a year ago, Eugenie Bouchard returns healthier, a little wiser and a lot more settled

WIMBLEDON – Genie Bouchard doesn’t understand what the big deal is about “the dress”.

“I think it’s a bigger story than it should have been. I don’t know if other players like the dress or not but for me, I think it’s really pretty. It’s short, but I like dresses like that,” Bouchard said Saturday after a pair of practices were duly completed despite some rain in the afternoon.

It’s old news for Bouchard, who first tried out the dress for the Nike photo shoot nearly a year ago.

With the clothing giant having mandated all of its players wear the dress at Wimbledon – and with most of them used to wearing two-piece outfits of rather more modest length – there have been some wardrobe malfunctions and some grumbling. But Bouchard said she really likes the pleats, and tested it out on the practice court – as she does with everything she wears – with no issues.

Despite reports that Nike was recalling players to its rented house in Wimbledon for “adjustments”, Bouchard said the dress wasn’t lengthened; she said they just did a few alternations on the sides.

As with Stan Wawrinka’s loud shorts a year ago, when he won the French Open, the Nike Wimbledon dress has already served its purpose in terms of all the attention it has gotten; those who paid attention will be eagerly looking forward to seeing the players with it on court when the tournament begins Monday.

But Bouchard has other pressing concerns. And after an ignominious exit a year ago in the first round against Ying-Ying Duan of China, she returns to her favourite tournament of the year in a much better place.

(Here's what she looked like during a late-afternoon practice Saturday against Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium).

With a tear in her abdominal muscle, she played against doctors’ advice last year. “For me, I’m playing Wimbledon every year until I’m 40 – no matter what,” she said. “It’s Wimbledon.”

Bouchard just wants to look forward. “I’ve made a lot of progress this year, better than I thought with my injury at the end of last year, changing coaches and all that. Slowly, I have more and more confidence in myself on the court, and being here brings back so many good memories that maybe that gives me more confidence just to be here,” she said.

Bouchard has a rented house in Wimbledon and her brother Will (who accompanied her to the WTA party Thursday night), mother Julie Leclair (who has been conspicuous in her absence around the circuit so far this season) and Saviano are all ensconced there.

There definitely appear to be no physical issues and, in contrast to a year ago, Bouchard appears to feel a lot more comfortable in her own skin.

The fact that she’s unseeded at the big tournaments, and that her first-round opponent could be her last depending on how the draw shakes out, hasn’t fazed her.

“I forgot that they did the draw. I had lunch and went to practice again, and only after I asked my coach who I played and he got the name of my opponent wrong. He doesn’t even care either. HE thought I was playing (Barbora) Strycova,” Bouchard said, laughing.

In fact, it is another “Ova”, Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia, ranked No. 92 and on paper at least, a much better option.

“I was talking to Sabine later (Lisicki, with whom Bouchard is playing doubles), she asked who I played and I said Strycova, so she probably thinks I’m really out of it,” she added. “It doesn’t matter to me, I could play Serena first round, I could play a qualifier first round, I just have to go out there and do my job.

“Luckily I avoided Serena. Of course, it would be amazing to play against her but later in the tournament, that would be appreciated.”

Bouchard didn’t know she would be facing Fed Cup teammate Gabriela Dabrowski (and Spanish partner Maria José Martínez Sánchez) in the first round of doubles until Lisicki told her.

As for the mixed doubles, it sounded as though she hopes to play; she’s still laughing about completely pulling a brain cramp and missing the sign-in deadline for the mixed at the French Open, where she had planned to play with Vasek Pospisil.

At Wimbledon, the deadline is Wednesday at 11 a.m. – it’s on a big sign in the locker room, and Bouchard repeated it to herself several times Saturday, just to make sure it sticks this time.

Who will she play with? Pospisil told Eh Game in Paris that he wouldn’t play mixed at Wimbledon, needing to focus on defending his quarter-final effort in singles and, as champion in 2014 with partner Jack Sock of the U.S., having a good chance in the men’s doubles as well.

Bouchard joked she’d put out the call on Twitter for a prospective partner, a move that no doubt would get quick results.

All in all, the Canadian appears to be in good spirits. And the lessons learned in a trying year have put everything into perspective – even false stories in the media such as the big hullaballoo over her alleged “eating disorder”. Bouchard never said she had an eating disorder; indeed says her issues with keeping food down because of all the nervous tension were something she has always dealt with, although it did get worse over the last 18 months. But never to the point of a clinical diagnosis. The headlines, trying to simplify a complicated issue, blared anyway.

“I’ve learned to take media headlines with a grain of salt and know they just want to make headlines, and not to take that personally.  Also, I have better people around me. I feel like things are good. I’m really focusing on me; the small circle of people I really trust keeps me grounded, centred in a way. I try to keep my vision on that,” she said. “I experienced things a normal 20-year-old wouldn’t experience, but now I’m able to take a step back a little bit more than when I was playing in 2014.