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January 19, 2020,
Women’s professional tennis continues to make news.
Very desirable it is, to be in the news right before the 2020 Australian Open.
Not so enchanting is to be in the news for all of the wrong reasons.
Unfortunately for Eugenie Bouchard, one of Canada’s former top female tennis players, she will not be invited into the main draw of the tournament.
On January 17, 2020, as reported by essentiallysports.com, “Former World No.5 Eugenie Bouchard will not feature at the Australian Open 2020 main draw as she fails to qualify for the main event. Bouchard lost her final qualifying match 6-4, 6-3 to Martina Trevisan on Friday.”
Very unfortunate.
Not very surprising though.
We’ve written about Ms. Bouchard. The best way to describe the article in one word that described Eugenie’s approach to a sport that she is so talented at is “disappointing”.
2019 AO, Vs Serena, What Was Eugenie Bouchard Thinking …
How a year goes by so quickly.
At that 2019 Australian Open, Eugenie made short work of China’s Peng Shuai in the opening round before falling to Serena Williams in the second round. With an early exit at the Australian Open, she choose to compete at the Oracle Challenger Series on the WTA 125K series tour (WTA’s secondary level professional tour circuit).
Seeded third, Bouchard progressed to the quarter-finals at the event, where she was defeated by compatriot Bianca Andreescu.
That was then.
The way Eugenie is playing now, you would never know that she was the former number five player in the world.
At the 2014 Wimbledon Championships, she became the first Canadian-born player representing Canada to reach the final of a Grand Slam tournament in singles, finishing runner-up to Petra Kvitová.
Ms. Bouchard also reached the semifinals of the 2014 Australian Open and 2014 French Open.
The semi-finals of the Aussie Open only six years ago for crying out loud. Now?
She can’t even qualify to get in. Very sad. Truly. No sarcasm.
Eugenie has it all. Hopefully not had it all.
She’s young, talented, picturesque and wealthy.
A proficient student in mathematics and science, she once considered a career as a physician. She is fluent in French and English. Her favorite tennis player is Roger Federer, whom she met in 2012 at the Wimbledon Ball. She described talking with Federer as a highlight of her life.
Is that job for a physician still open?
Is it too much to expect more?
Based upon her past success, how can we not?
Having won the 2012 Wimbledon girls’ title, she was named WTA Newcomer of the Year at the end of the 2013 WTA Tour.
Finally, Ms. Bouchard received the WTA Most Improved Player award for the 2014 season and reached a career-high ranking of No. 5, becoming the first Canadian female tennis player to be ranked in the top 5 in singles.
Very hard to top that, but we felt that she could have.
Now she is breaking records in all of the wrong ways.
Currently at the world’s number 211 and sliding, Eugenie’s straight-sets win over Maddison Inglis on Thursday put her just one win away from the main draw in Melbourne. However, her loss against the World No. 154 Martina Trevisan eliminated her from the tournament. This will be the first time that the 2014 semifinalist will not be playing the Australian Open main draw since 2013.
We hope that the news regarding Eugenie improves. We would love to see her keep playing.
Just at a higher level.
The good news for the legendary luminary Maria Sharapova is that she will be entered into the main draw.
Maria received an Australian Open wildcard as she attempts to regain some of the form that won her the title in 2008.
As reported by ausopen.com, “Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley revealed on Wednesday that former world No.1 and five-time major champion Sharapova will receive a wildcard entry as she attempts to improve her current world ranking of No.147.”
Hmm, number 147. While we won’t say how the mighty have fallen, we will view it as the glass half full and hope that the once mighty Grand Slam champion is ready to rise again. She never leaves anything on the court, always putting her heart into every match and sometimes wearing her emotions on her sleeveless attire.
In other January 2020 women’s tennis news, American super star Serena Williams continues her quest for a record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title when the 2020 Australian Open starts this Monday, January 20th.
Serena has lost four major finals in a row, most recently falling in straight sets to Canadian rising star Bianca Andreescu at the U.S. Open final last September, 2019.
Still pursuing her quest, that defeat made Serena Williams 2-6 in her last eight major finals after she went 21-4 in major finals from 1999 through 2016.
We love watching Serena and hope that she achieves her goal with 2020 New Year’s resolve.
At tennis.com the experts and tea leaf readers are primarily picking Serena and Naomi Osaka to repeat here as champions.
According to Mr. Jordaan Sanford who picks Naomi Osaka, “The No. 3 seed finished last season strong, with wins in Osaka and Beijing. Last week in Brisbane, she defeated Sofia Kenin and Kiki Bertens. She looks to be at the top of her game, and without the No. 1 beside her name, she should feel less pressure, which could make all the difference.”
Good point. At times Naomi does seem to feel the pressure and at the most recent slams, her play seems to reflect it.
One of Maria Sharapova’s fiercest rivals is soon calling it quits.
This will be the final tournament for the 2018 champion and former world number one, Caroline Wozniacki.
She announced her retirement effective at the end of the tournament.
Bianca Andreescu, the reigning women’s singles champion of the 2019 US Open, the Grand Slam tournament immediately preceding the 2020 Australian Open, withdrew due to a knee injury. This marked the first time since the 1996 Australian Open that the defending US Open champion withdrew before the tournament.
Too bad. Talk about a player who plays with passion. We’ve have been mesmerized by Bianca and wrote about her too.
Canada’s Bianca Andreescu, Screaming Hot Streak
Now that our friends is the women’s tennis news.
This 2020 version of the Australian Open appears to be wide open and full of surprises.
Time to watch. It’s your serve.
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Opening photo fciwomenswrestling.com femcompetitor.com, fcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com, grapplingstars.com, San Jose Mercury News (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group) photo credit
https://www.essentiallysports.com/eugenie-bouchard-fails-to-qualify-for-australian-open-2020-tennis/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Australian_Open_%E2%80%93_Women%27s_Singles
https://ausopen.com/articles/news/maria-sharapova-awarded-ao2020-wildcard
