Victoria Mboko was only seven years old when Eugenie Bouchard captivated the country \u2014 and the tennis world \u2014 with her run to the Wimbledon final.<\/p>\n
But Mboko still remembers its magnitude because of how Bouchard’s achievements shaped the future of Canadian tennis.<\/p>\n
“She paved the way for so many other generations to look up to that,” said Mboko, an 18-year-old rising star from Toronto. “It impacted Canadian tennis in a way that she was the first one to do so.<\/p>\n
“A really big deal.”<\/p>\n
Bouchard became the first Canadian woman in the open era to contest a Grand Slam singles final when she lost to Petra Kvitova at the All England Club in 2014.<\/p>\n
That same landmark season, the then-20-year-old reached the Australian Open and French Open semifinals, captured a WTA title in Nuremberg, Germany, and ascended to No. 5 in the world rankings.<\/p>\n
Her aggressive playstyle and charisma on the court also attracted fans across the globe, including “Genie’s Army” \u2014 a group of Australian supporters that began rallying around the phenom at that year’s Aussie Open.<\/p>\n
More than a decade later, without ever reaching those 2014 heights again, Bouchard is hanging up her racket.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old from Westmount, Que., \u2014 who has steadily stepped away from the pro tennis tour over the years \u2014 will begin her final tournament against Colombia’s Emiliana Arango at the National Bank Open in Montreal after announcing last week she would retire at the end of her hometown event.<\/p>\n
The feelings, Bouchard said, are bittersweet.<\/p>\n
“There’s sadness in there. Happiness, relief, excitement,” she said at a news conference after Saturday’s draw, the timing of her first match not yet announced. “It’ll be an emotional week for sure, but I just want to try to embrace every moment …\u00a0so when I look back when I’m sixty years old, I’ll have these nice, happy memories of celebrating and appreciating my career.<\/p>\n
“Let’s see it as a party, you guys. It’s not a funeral.”<\/p>\n
Canada’s past and future will be on display at the National Bank Open.<\/p>\n
While Bouchard plays in her final tournament, Mboko, perhaps Canada’s next best shot at a women’s singles Grand Slam run after Bianca Andreescu and Leylah Fernandez followed Bouchard’s footsteps, will compete in her first main draw in Montreal.<\/p>\n
Mboko, who’s American-born and of Congolese descent, has skyrocketed up the WTA rankings from No. 333 at the start of this year to 88th heading into her first-round matchup Sunday afternoon against Australia’s Kimberly Birrell.<\/p>\n
The big-serving, attack-minded player has a stellar 45-8 record in all competitions this year, including three qualifying and two main draw wins at the French Open, her first Grand Slam.<\/p>\n
At Wimbledon, she qualified for the main draw as a lucky loser and upset No. 25 seed Magdalena Frech in the opening round.<\/p>\n
Mboko is trying to take it all in stride.<\/p>\n
“When I rose in the rankings like that, it went really fast. I think it was a little bit fast for me,” she said. “I haven’t really gotten much of an opportunity to reflect on what has happened in the past couple of months because in tennis, we’re always so looking forward to the next tournament.<\/p>\n
“I haven’t really had a chance to settle in and realize the results I have done.”<\/p>\n
Bouchard, meanwhile, reflected on the ups and downs of her career, highlighting her Grand Slam success and the 2016 Rio Olympics, and some lower points.<\/p>\n
“It’s hard to live a life without regret,” she said. “I’m sure I can think of specific moments where I now I would say, `Ah, I should have done this instead,’ but at the same time I did what I thought was best for me at that time.”<\/p>\n
Her advice to Mboko?<\/p>\n
“Vicky is doing great,” she said. “I don’t know if she needs advice.<\/p>\n
“I remember practising with her years ago when she was 14, we always knew she would be really good.”<\/p>\n
Revamped format<\/p>\n
This year’s edition features a revamped 12-day, 96-player format. The top 32 seeds, including world No. 2 Coco Gauff, two-time defending champion Jessica Pegula and Wimbledon winner Iga Swiatek, received byes to the second round. No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka is absent due to fatigue.<\/p>\n
A record nine Canadians are in the main draw after Ariana Arseneault of Richmond Hill, Ont., advanced through qualifying.<\/p>\n
Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., who won the tournament in Toronto in 2019, faces a tough opening matchup against the Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova, a two-time Grand Slam champion, on Sunday night.<\/p>\n
Fernandez of Laval, Que. \u2014 the top-ranked Canadian at 36th in the world \u2014 meets American Maya Joint.<\/p>\n
Carson Branstine, Kayla Cross, Marina Stakusic and veteran Rebecca Marino will also take the court in Montreal, where Bouchard will be the main attraction.<\/p>\n
“Just an incredible career,” Marino said. “She achieved what many of us aspire to achieve as well, and I think it inspired a lot of younger generations to come up that we’re seeing now.<\/p>\n
“It’s great that she’s had that influence on Canadian tennis, Canadian sport as a whole. It’s bittersweet to see her retiring because I really admire her game, but I think we’re all celebrating what an amazing career she’s had.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victoria Mboko was only seven years old when Eugenie Bouchard captivated the country \u2014 and the tennis world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-27493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}