Eugenie Bouchard was born on February 25, 1994, in Montreal, Quebec, and was one of two twins to Michel Bouchard and Julie Leclair. She began playing tennis at the age of 5 and was a member of Tennis Canada’s National Training Centre before moving to Florida to train with Nick Saviano at the age of 12.
Bouchard had success as a junior player. She reached the semifinals of the 2011 Australian Open and then won the 2012 Wimbledon junior singles title. This was achieved with a victory in the final against Elina Svitolina. The Canadian won her first WTA Tour match at the age of just 17 by beating Alison Riske at the Citi Open.
A few more victories followed in 2012 to push her further up the rankings. 2013 saw Bouchard make a breakthrough. She got to her first WTA final at the Japan Open, where she lost a tight match to Samantha Stosur, and also had a third-round appearance at Wimbledon.
Those efforts saw her named the 2013 WTA Newcomer of the Year. The following year was even more successful for the Canadian. Bouchard progressed to a maiden Grand Slam semifinal at the Australian Open, which included a victory against former Roland Garros champion Ana Ivanovic.
Bouchard had more strong results during the 2014 clay court season. She won her first WTA title in Nuremberg by defeating Karolina Pliskova in the final and then had another Grand Slam semifinal run at the French Open. The Canadian went even further at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships.
Bouchard stormed to the final in memorable fashion without dropping a set, defeating future Grand Slam champions Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep along the way. Bouchard could not find that form in the final and lost to Petra Kvitotva.
She also reached her first WTA 1000 final in Wuhan in 2014 but was bested by Kvitova in the final again. Despite those final defeats, she ended the year as the world's No. 7, and the future looked very bright.
However, Bouchard has not been able to replicate that level of success since. She progressed to the quarterfinal of the 2015 Australian Open, but the former Wimbledon runner-up has not been back to that stage of a Grand Slam since.
Bouchard did make two more WTA 250 finals in early 2016, but a surprising decline followed for the Canadian after that. She struggled hugely for the next four years and ended 2019 ranked outside the Top 200. There were some hopeful signs in 2020 and early 2021.
After reaching a first Grand Slam third-round in over three years at the French Open, Bouchard advanced to her first finals since 2016 at the WTA 250 events in Istanbul and Zapopan.
Sadly, Bouchard then suffered a serious shoulder injury that kept her out of the game for 17 months until August 2022. This was a major setback for the Canadian, and she has struggled to recapture any of her old form since.
