Eugenie Bouchard wants to play more ITF events because she needs matches

While several players have expressed concerns about travelling between the United States and Europe in recent months, former World No. 5 Eugenie Bouchard is one of the few players who has chosen to travel to the WTA event in Prague to compete this week. The Canadian will play in the first round against Veronika Kudermetova in the first round and says she also plans to compete in some ITF events because she needs matches.

Former World No. 5 Eugenie Bouchard on need to play some Challengers

Speaking on the Match Point Canada podcast, Bouchard, who is now ranked outside the Top 300 in the world rankings, says, "It’s going to be tricky for sure.. With my ranking, I definitely need to play some ITF Challengers, which is good for me to play anyway because I need matches. Get those wins, get that confidence back. I don’t think the ITF schedule is fully released yet so we’re still in the dark which is tough. I want to play as many matches as I can and mix it up. With the ITF matches, I want to play on the WTA Tour as well at whichever events I can get wild-card entries into. So I want to start there."

Bouchard says that she does not want to rest on her past achievements and wants to try and improve her current ranking. "Whatever you have accomplished, no one can take that away from you. At the same time, you don’t want to let that make you complacent or relax or rest on your laurels."

The 26 year old Eugenie Bouchard was a finalist at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships, where she lost to Czech woman Petra Kvitová. She also reached the semi-finals of the 2014 Australian Open and 2014 French Open. She peaked at No. 5 in the world rankings and at that time was the first Canadian female tennis player to be ranked in the top 5 in singles. She reached the quarter-finals at the ASB Classic in January this year. She has won 1 WTA singles and 1 WTA Tour doubles title in her career so far. At the US Open, her best performance has been a fourth round finish in 2014 and 2015. Despite her low ranking, Bouchard is one of the most popular players on the tour.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2PMZXry