Eugenie Bouchard is another player who made a shocking move to pickleball, signing up for the PPA Tour in 2024.
Tennis players have recently found a lot of interest in a new emerging racket sport: pickleball. A few players have already transitioned from the tennis courts to pickleball, and it seems like the sport's leading Tour, the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) Tour, isn't done attracting even more tennis players.
Only recently, former ATP player, Jack Sock retired from professional tennis, but at the same time, announced his move to pickleball's PPA Tour. Sock is a former World No. 8 in singles and No. 2 in doubles, and a four-time Grand Slam champion in doubles and mixed doubles, so this was a great signing for the PPA Tour.
His colleague from the WTA Tour, Eugenie Bouchard, will now join him on the PPA Tour. The Canadian is set to join the growing list of tennis players making the switch from tennis to pickleball.
Bouchard, like Sock, made it to the Top 10 in the rankings, reaching the World No. 5 rank back in 2014, which was the same year when she played in the Australian Open and Roland Garros semi-finals and the Wimbledon Championships final.
Pickleball is a new sport often described as a mix of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong. Naturally, the sport's governing body, PPA Tour, is trying to show people interested in the sport that even some familiar faces from the tennis courts are interested in playing the sport, and that's why they have made an effort to sign both Sock and Bouchard.
Recently, Bouchard lost in the US Open qualifiers to Dayana Yastremska, but she will soon turn her focus to pickleball draws, as she will probably have to pause her tennis career to focus on pickleball.
At the moment, it's not clear how the Canadian player plans to manage both careers or whether she plans to announce her retirement from tennis, but one thing is clear: Fans will get to enjoy her on the pickleball courts in 2024.
0 Comments