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In an unexpected twist of fate, Eugenie Bouchard ends up back on the court of her finest career moment, the memories flooding back
WIMBLEDON – As she walked onto Centre Court late Wednesday evening, the roof firmly in place and the raindrops pinging above her head in a way that when you’re in there, it’s often the loudest thing you hear, Genie Bouchard immediately had flashbacks.
It was a little surreal.
“You know, the same lady that walked me out for the final two years ago (against Petra Kvitova in 2014) walked us out, and after the match we talked about those memories, as well, because that is my first time since the final,” Bouchard said after the unscheduled and unexpected move to the most legendary court in tennis allowed her to finish off a 6-3, 6-4 first-round victory over Magdalena Rybarikova relatively without incident.
“When I walked out, I kind of had a vision of the final with the full crowd and everything. Yeah, amazing memories. Every time I go out there, it's an honour,” she added. “It felt the same. That's why I had these memories that came back instantly from two years ago. You know, it looks the exact same. It felt the exact same. I was just trying to be focused like I was last time.
“The opponent, the round is different but nothing can change that Centre Court Wimbledon feeling.”
The occasion was ripe for all the “Genie Bouchard gets to wear her naughty Nike negligée at an appropriate hour” jokes people had been holding back. But the bottom line on the Canadian’s last-minute court switch was that she got to finish a match she had fully expected to be held over for a second day – and she finished it off in straight sets.
When Thursday’s order of play came out while Bouchard was meeting her television commitments around 9:30 p.m., it turned out that not only was she playing, she would be on Centre Court again.
The fact that she would be playing British No. 1 Johanna Konta guaranteed a pretty plum court assignment, but this was the biggest – even if the two will have to wait for two best-of-five set men’s matches to wrap up.
But when Bouchard does walk out onto that court again less than 24 hours later, the goose bumps and awe will be out of the way.
That’s a lot more notice than the 22-year-old received before she took to the court Tuesday. Wimbledon won’t generally ever change a court assignment in the middle of a match; Bouchard led 6-3 and was serving at 2-1, 15-30 when rain scuttled play for the night on Tuesday, out on Court 12.
She arrived on site in the morning only to have her 10:30 a.m. pre-match warmup last less than 15 minutes before the players were chased off by the grounds crew when the rain began to pelt down.
Even as the crew was dismantling the net, with the rollout of the tarp just nanoseconds away – and the tarp waits for NO player – Bouchard was hitting just a few more serves and second shots and trying to squeeze every second out of her time.
She said later that as the day progressed, she didn’t expect to get on court.
Worse still was the fact that Bouchard was the exception in the scheduling. Some 16 matches were suspended Tuesday night and the only one that wasn’t scheduled first on its court with a projected 11:30 a.m. start was Bouchard’s match.
Despite the fact that it was 4:30 p.m. before much of anything happened, all of those matches finished up. But Bouchard and Rybarikova were the second match on Court 12; British player Heather Watson and Annika Beck of Germany were first on. Of course, that went three sets. And early in that third set, the rains came again.
The first bunch of matches was cancelled shortly before 3:30 p.m., another batch an hour later and by 7:30 p.m., the tournament referee announced that all play on the outside courts – i.e. all but the Belinda Bencic match that had been moved from a smaller court to a spot under the roof before it started – was postponed.
But … wait.
First a note about 7:50 p.m. that the Bouchard-Rybarikova match should “no longer be on the cancelled list” – a dead giveaway that they were thinking of changing course.
Bouchard was told that if the Bencic match wrapped up by 8 p.m., she would be next. It did – barely. And she and Rybarikova were headed to Centre Court after a full day of doing absolutely … nothing.
“I was on the same couch for about six hours straight. Very, very challenging day. It's obviously the same for both players and a lot of the players today,” Bouchard said. “It's what I guess you have to expect from Wimbledon a little bit, and you have to embrace it and see it as, you know, not something so negative because you are at Wimbledon. But it's so challenging to know when to eat and try and nap but you kind of keep yourself half-awake because it's raining. It's that on/off situation all day, so it's tough.”
Further complicating matters, Bouchard was in the middle of a service game when play resumed at about 8:15 p.m., more than 17 hours after the last ball was struck. One errant backhand and it was 15-40; the Canadian found herself in a situation that threatened to undo all the good work she had done the previous day.
She won four straight points, holding with an ace and quickly went up two breaks. Bouchard gave one back and when she tried to serve it out, found herself in another 15-40 hole.
She saved four break points before earning a match point. The Canadian hit the line with her first serve, sprinted forward to hit a swing volley – and missed it long
Or so she thought. So they both thought.
“I almost didn't challenge. Then I was like, ‘Okay. It's match point. I have to challenge,' ” Bouchard said. “I was honestly very surprised. She thought it was out, as well. I think everyone did. I don't know. Luckily the gods were with me on that point so it worked out.”
These were dicey, uncertain circumstances all around and Bouchard has had more than one match in the last 12 months where the slightest little thing tilted the delicate balance of her confidence and sent matches spiralling out of control.
It’s an encouraging sign that even as it looked as though Rybarikova would even that second set at 5-5 – at which point, anything could happen – Bouchard stayed the course and swatted away the threat. She served at a 75 per cent clip for the match, converted on 4-of-7 break points and saved 8-of-10 break points faced.
She now will play Konta, who is having a career surge in the middle stages of her career and is the No. 16 seed at her “home” Grand Slam.
“Really, really weird and crazy to obviously change courts in the middle of a match on a different day. But to change courts, not just to a regular court, to Centre Court at Wimbledon is very unique,” Bouchard said. “It was definitely hard to kind of get your bearings a little bit to be in the middle of a match in that situation.”
The official word to Eh Game from the tournament about the original scheduling for Bouchard was that it was about respecting the brackets in the draw. We’re not quite sure what that means. But it wouldn’t be out of left field to posit that the late decision to contravene their own rules and get Bouchard’s match finished on Centre had something to do with the intention and/or need to schedule Konta on a big court Thursday.
There was some availability there, with Kei Nishikori on first at 1 p.m (evening prime-time in Japan) then Andy Murray: no Roger Federer, no Novak Djokovic and no Serena Williams – players who needed to be put on big courts – as will theoretically be the case on Friday.
Whatever the chain of events, it all worked out.
Milos Raonic's second-round match against Andreas Seppi, scheduled for No. 1 Court, was cancelled. He will also play Thursday, but has been moved to Court No. 3.
