Eugenie Bouchard Refuses Retirement U-Turn Despite Petition Being Singed To Keep Her Going

Thursday, 31 July 2025 at 22:56

byErik Virostko

Eugenie Bouchard officially played her last professional tennis match, and there doesn't seem to be anything that would convince her otherwise, even a petition.

Ahead of this year's Canadian Open in Montreal, Bouchard announced that it would be her last professional tennis tournament. With the 31-year-old rarely appearing on the tennis courts lately, there weren't many tennis fans who expected Bouchard's retirement event to last more than one match.

However, the 2014 Wimbledon finalist was able to surprise everyone, maybe even including herself. She played a great first match, beating Emiliana Arango 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, and an equally impressive second match, only narrowly losing to the World No. 20 player, Belinda Bencic, 2-6, 6-3, 4-6.

Those two impressive performances at a WTA 1000 tournament made many fans think that, if she wanted to, Bouchard could continue competing for longer than she initially intended.

She was asked about that even during her press conference after the loss to Bencic, and revealed that her sister even started a petition among the fans to keep Bouchard competing.

"Everyone keeps asking me that. My sister said she started a petition with fans in the crowd, and everyone signed it, so now I have no choice but to rescind my retirement. But there's a lot of hard work that goes into tennis. It was great to be able to perform well, but it's such a tough life of sacrifice and hard work."

"I've given so much to tennis, and it's given me so much, but I do feel ready to move on from that and do other things in life, but I will forever be grateful for what tennis has given me."

Every tennis career has to end eventually, and fans in Montreal had a chance to witness the end of Bouchard's career. She was happy she could end it in Montreal, as that is a special place for her.

Read also

"Like I said on court, I've always had a feeling I would end my career here. Just makes sense. Montreal is where I was born and raised, so it just feels right. Yeah, just an emotional moment."

"I think I just wanted a moment like this because my career kind of deserved a moment like this is what I felt like. I really think I got it tonight, and I'm so grateful for that."

Naturally, Bouchard was also asked about her next steps. She is still a professional pickleball player, and the Canadian was asked whether she would consider becoming a tennis commentator.

"Maybe a vacation (laughing). I look forward to sleeping in tomorrow. Yeah, I mean, I want to give myself the opportunity to have space and time to really reflect on what I want to do and have that time to be open to opportunities."

"I've always said I feel like I missed out because I didn't go to college and didn't go to school, so that could be an option as well. Diving into the TV stuff more is definitely something I enjoy, so that's a probable next step."

"Yeah, I mean, are any of you guys hiring (laughing)? I don't know how to even write -- what do you even call it when you -- [Résumé]. I don't even have one of those. Maybe my agent can come up with one for me. I'm not used to doing that."