“It Will Help Tennis Players to Keep Playing” – Eugenie Bouchard on Tennis Canada’s Initiative

Former World Number five tennis player Eugenie Bouchard is one of the renowned faces of Canadian tennis. In 2014, she was the first Canadian-born tennis player to reach the finals at Wimbledon. Also, Bouchard was the first Canadian to be ranked inside WTA’s top-five rankings.

Recently, Tennis Canada has come up with a concrete plan to financially aid their lower-ranked players amid the coronavirus pandemic. The grants will be sponsored by National Bank to the players ranked between 100 and 750 in the singles rankings. Also, doubles players ranked between 25 to 100 will be benefitting the grants.

Read More – Tennis Canada Unveils Ambitious Policy To Support Tennis Players

Eugenie Bouchard address her thoughts on the initiative 

While speaking to Tennis Channel on Thursday, Eugenie Bouchard appreciated the initiative implemented by her home country’s tennis association. It would definitely help the lower-ranked players to continue with their profession and hopes to play the sport will be firm. 

“Yeah, I heard that news recently. I think that’s great. It’s coming from the National Bank which is a huge sponsor of tennis in Canada. I was talking to one of my good friends, and she’s eligible for the grant. I think it will help tennis players to keep playing tennis. Tennis has become more popular in Canada now, I think it’s going to help,” she said.

Lower-ranked players do not have the leverage of sponsorships, they solely depend on weekly earnings received from different tournaments on the tour. Now as there are no tournaments going on, those players are struggling to pay their bills.

World Number 332 Bouchard made a strong start of the season and reached the quarters at ASB Classic by defeating Kirsten Flipkens and eighth seed Caroline Garcia. Later, she failed to qualify for Australian Open 2020 as she fell to World Number 153 Martina Trevisan in the third qualifying round.

During the long break of tennis, Bouchard is working incessantly on her game and hopes to do her best once the tour resumes.