Chris Evert expects Genie Bouchard to return to the top of the world – but she no longer sees her way back into the top ten.
Slowly the squirrel feeds… in the case of Genie Bouchard, things are steadily improving. The Canadian had slipped down to rank 193 in June of this year, but currently she is back in 123rd place in the world. The collaboration with the old warhorse Robert Lansdorp plays a role here – another is that the former Wimbledon finalist goes the hard way. In Wimbledon she survived the qualification and reached round two, in Gstaad she reached the semi-finals and at the ITF tournament in Vancouver she reached the quarter-finals. Results that Chris Evert also follows.
“What I like is that she does it like Andre Agassi. That she plays the smaller tournaments to win matches. That gives her confidence,” Evert said in a preview of the US Open for ESPN. This path, Evert said, would show that they are hungry to come back. However, the 18-time major winner restricted herself: “I don’t think she can come back to where she was.” Bouchard was ranked fifth in the world in October 2014. “But I have no doubt that she can get back into the top 30.”
“She’s proved she’s dangerous when she hits,” Evert said as well. “Their game is to be aggressive, to hit the ball. She has to work on her movement to get into that position. The same applies to constancy. “And at the moment she’s getting the matches she needs – and with them the self-confidence.”
The 24-year-old Bouchard is competing in the US Open qualifying competition. She won round one on Tuesday 6-0, 6-1 against compatriot Carol Zhao, on Thursday she will meet Ekaterine Gorgodze from Georgia.
The US Open Qualifying Draw of the Women