throwback first-round upset Monday night against Emiliana Arango<\/a>, her first WTA Tour victory since 2023.<\/p>\nThe local favorite turned back the clock again Wednesday by rallying from down a set, but Bencic held on to win the match in two hours, 16 minutes.<\/p>\n
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Fans packing the stands at IGA Stadium chanted \u201cLet\u2019s Go Genie!\u201d and grew louder throughout the night, standing for several ovations.<\/p>\n
Bouchard returned the favor with an emotional, teary-eyed speech during an on-court ceremony.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so special to play my last match here in Montreal, on this court, in front of you guys,\u201d she said. \u201cI remember being a little kid, sitting in these stands, hoping and dreaming that I would play on this court one day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like such a full-circle moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
And her career almost continued a little longer.<\/p>\n
After a difficult first set, Bouchard bounced back to win the second and went up a break early in the third, winning a back-and-forth third game when Bencic\u2019s shot dipped into the net on the Canadian\u2019s fifth breakpoint opportunity.<\/p>\n
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Bencic regrouped and broke back to tie at 3-3 as Bouchard sprayed shots wide and long. Trailing 5-4 and needing to hold serve, Bouchard fell in a 40-love hole and sent her backhand wide while defending the second match point, ending her upset bid.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I could win the match,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was really close from the second onward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, it marks the end of a roller-coaster career.<\/p>\n
Bouchard peaked during the 2014 season, winning her only WTA singles title, reaching the Australian Open and French Open semis and becoming the first Canadian to play in a Grand Slam singles final at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n
But Bouchard\u2019s rapid rise at 20 also quickly came falling down after her 6-3, 6-0 loss to Petra Kvitova at the All England Club.<\/p>\n
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Her highly anticipated homecoming one month later ended abruptly with a 6-0, 2-6, 6-0 loss against American qualifier Shelby Rogers at the then-called Rogers Cup. And the following year, Bouchard crashed out of the French Open and Wimbledon first rounds as losing streaks piled up.<\/p>\n
A run to the U.S. Open fourth round hinted at a return to form, until Bouchard suffered a concussion from slipping in the locker room \u2014 for which she later filed a lawsuit \u2014 forcing her to withdraw from the tournament.<\/p>\n
In recent years, Bouchard has sporadically played on the pro tennis circuit, spending more time on the PPA Pickleball Tour, where she ranks 12th in singles.<\/p>\n
She ramped up for her final event with the WTA 125 Hall of Fame Open in July \u2014 her first tournament since last year\u2019s National Bank Open \u2014 and lost her opener in straight sets.<\/p>\n
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As for what\u2019s next, Bouchard says she looks forward to sleeping in, going on vacation and reflecting on what she wants to do with the rest of her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I missed out because I didn\u2019t go to college and didn\u2019t go to school,\u201d she said. \u201cDiving into the TV stuff more is definitely something I enjoy, so that\u2019s a probable next step. I mean, are any of you guys hiring (laughing)? I don\u2019t know how to even write \u2014 what do you even call it when you \u2026\u201d.<\/p>\n
The word Bouchard was looking for? Resume.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even have one of those,\u201d she said. \u201cMaybe my agent can come up with one for me. I\u2019m not used to doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL (AP) \u2014 Genie Bouchard didn\u2019t look like a player limping into retirement. You\u2019d be forgiven for thinking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[40311,40310,40312,99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-52663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-belinda-bencic","9":"tag-genie-bouchard","10":"tag-national-bank-open","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}