VANCOUVER — Her first match left her physically and mentally exhausted, but Eugenie Bouchard couldn’t be happier.
After a 17-month layoff recovering from right shoulder surgery, the Westmount, Que., native returns to tennis at the Odlum Brown VanOpen.
“The goal of the surgery and the comeback is to be able to play exactly the way I want to and the way I used to play,” the 28-year-old former world No. 5 said on Monday.
“That’s what we do as athletes. It’s not about training all the time, it’s about playing.”
Bouchard opened the tournament on Sunday night, teaming with Canada’s Kayla Cross to defeat Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti and Elisabetta Cocciaretto in a doubles match.
“I was exhausted,” Bouchard said with a smile. “I started to feel tight in my body, my muscles hurt.
“It’s just that mental approach. Playing a game is different to practice. It’s about getting those reps over and over again. I’ll get the stamina from that and I’ll be able to play games completely normally again, but it’s a small step.” .
Bouchard plays her first singles match on Tuesday against Arianne Hartoro of the Netherlands, a player she knows nothing about. Bouchard knows there may be bumps in the road and accepts being an underdog.
“The expectations are very low, the expectations are on the floor,” said the two-time Canadian Press female athlete of the year. “My actions and my personal standards are high, but in terms of results, we don’t know what to expect.
“I’ve never had to come back from surgery before, I’ve never had an injury this big. For me, it’s really ground zero.”
The Odlum Brown VanOpen ends on Sunday. The tournament, which returns after missing two years due to COVID-19, has drawn 135 players to Hollyburn Country Club battling for a combined purse of more than $274,360.
The men’s tournament, which has a top prize of $21,600, has been an ATP Challenger Tour event for several years. For the first time this year, the women’s competition is a WTA 125 tournament with a top prize of $15,000.
The story continues
Bouchard, who received a wild card entry into the tournament, last played in March 2021 at the Monterrey Open where she injured her shoulder in a first-round match against Zhu Lin.
Bouchard became the first Canadian to reach a Grand Slam singles final in 2014 when she lost in the Wimbledon final to Petra Kvitova. He also reached the semifinals of the Australian Open and the French Open that year.
Since then, Bouchard has battled several injuries, including a concussion after a fall in the dressing room at the US Open.
Dealing with injuries and time away from the game has been a learning experience.
“I’ve learned a lot in life and I’ve been through some really tough times,” he said. “It’s really tested my patience to be out for so long. It’s not like when you retire and you’re cool with stopping. This is like a forced step. It’s hard to accept mentally.
“It made me realize how much I love tennis. There are so many other great things in life besides tennis, but it’s what I want to do now and for years to come.”
Vancouver resident Rebecca Marino, who is also playing in this year’s tournament, understands the challenges Bouchard faces.
Marino burst onto the WTA Tour and reached a career-high No. 38 in 2011 before retiring from the sport in 2013 due to depression. She returned to tennis in 2017 and then missed another 18 months with injury.
“To come back, not having competed in a match, it’s very difficult to replicate that match feeling from practice to competition,” he said. “There are a lot of nerves in your first event, there are a lot of challenges.”
Bouchard played in the Odlum Brown event as a junior in 2012, the same summer she won the junior women’s title at Wimbledon.
Other tennis stars who have played in the event include Marino, Milos Raonic, Maria Sharapova, Andy Murray, Leylah Fernandez, Johanna Konta, Kevin Anderson, Vasek Pospisil, Marion Bartoli, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Bianca Andreescu, Taylor Fritz and Naomi Osaka Karolina. Pliskova.
Bouchard knows he’s at the start of a new journey, but he’s not sure where it will end.
“The goal of the surgery and coming back is to be able to play exactly how I want to and how I was playing before,” he said. “It (the first game) went well, and everything is great. Now the aim is just to accumulate games and hopefully everything will be fine with my shoulder.
“The journey is as long as it needs to be. I love playing tennis. I’m just here to do what I can.”
BASELINES: Two seeds in the women’s singles draw were unrooted on Monday. Britain’s Heather Watson eliminated eighth seed Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, while Andorra’s Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva bounced back seventh seed Japan’s Misaki Doi by 6-3 and 6-2. … Rebecca Marino of Vancouver will play American Emma Navarro in her first singles match at Hollyburn Country Club on Tuesday. … Gabriel Diallo of Montreal is the first Canadian men’s player to advance to the second round of singles after defeating world No. 154 Zizou Bergs of Belgium 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 ( 5). Diallo is ranked 553 in the world. … Vasek Pospisil of Vancouver will play his first singles match Tuesday against Felipe Meligeni Alves of Brazil.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on August 15, 2022.
Jim Morris, The Canadian Press