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Eugenie Bouchard and Serena Williams: Cuddle Buddies
Canadian tennis star Genie Bouchard had a busy week.
She started it in the wilds of Churchill, Manitoba. And the selfie she posted with a polar bear is a little taste of what appears to be a Diet Coke commercial that likely will come out around Christmas time. The red and white parka was the dead giveaway.
After that, she did a round of shows in Toronto, and played tennis with The Raptor in Toronto.
Back in Montreal, she made a couple of last-minute, extensive appearances on the two Québec television sports networks, TVA Sports and RDS – both aired at exactly the same time.
The RDS interview (you can watch it here and here, in French) was mostly about tennis, so it didn't exactly cover much territory that hasn't been reiterated dozens of times during Bouchard's successful season.
But at TVA Sports, with host Dave Morrissette (the former NHL enforcer) and a panel of hockey people like fomer NHL coach Michel Bergeron, they ventured off on a more offbeat, fun path (you can watch that here and here).
The best part was when Bouchard played Grand Slam "Truth or Dare" with Morrissette, promising to tell a story she hadn't told before about each of the four majors this season.
Three of them were fairly pedestrian. Bouchard told of taking a selfie with one of the members of the original Genie Army in Australia and pointing out that he was ... good-looking. Then she told the story of taking one on court after her quarter-final win at the French Open with former star turned television commentator Fabrice (The Magician) Santoro and pointing out that he was ... well, we'll leave that one alone; it wasn't very nice.
At the U.S. Open, she told of how the deejay played her song, Genie in a Bottle by Christina Aguilera, when she took the court and when she left it and that whoever was responsible, she loved them.
But the Wimbledon story, which involved world No. 1 Serena Williams, was the winner – maybe of the season. We've translated it here.
"I don’t know if I should tell it, but I will.
"Before my fourth-round match, there was a lot of rain. We were all in the locker room and we were waiting to be able to play outside. I was sitting on a sofa and at one point, Serena comes to sit next to me.
"I was just doing my thing, listening to music, and so was she.
"Suddenly, I realized she'd fallen asleep next to me, and she was really close to me. It was like she was sleeping with me like I was her teddy bear!
"I looked, she was right next to me. I said, 'Oh my God, she’s No. 1 in the world, and she’s asleep!' That’s normal. Yeah, just another day in my life.
"It was really funny and afterwards she said, 'Oh, I’m sorry, I do that sometimes. I’m a big cuddler.' And then she said, 'That’s something I always wanted to do with you, Genie. So it’s good, I’ve done it, now I can cross it off my bucket list.
"It was a really funny moment. And we had a match in an hour, so it was pretty bizarre."
Bouchard didn't quite have the day right. She played her fourth-round match on the Monday, but on the Centre Court with the retractable roof, so there was no waiting around. And that makes the story even better.
She had to be referring to Saturday's third-round matches, a day during which there were five hours of rain delays.
When they finally got on court, separately, Bouchard defeated Andrea Petkovic. But Williams lost – a big upset defeat to Alizé Cornet of France after Williams won the first set 6-1.
The two would have met Monday in the fourth round had Williams won. But Bouchard beat Cornet instead, and went all the way to the final.
We now know it was all because of the cuddling.
