Genie Bouchard was once the world’s most marketable athlete.
Ten years ago, the Canadian was a Wimbledon finalist and seemingly a future Grand Slam champion, who business media company SportsPro placed above Olympic legend Usain Bolt, footballer Cristiano Ronaldo then still regarded as the best around, NBA star Steph Curry and golfer Jordan Spieth for marketability.
The 30-year-old was a highly rated junior who burst onto the scene as a teenager, winning the junior Wimbledon in 2012.
The following year proved to be a breakthrough time for Bouchard as she won WTA newcomer of the year, with highlights, including beating former world number one Ana Ivanovic on Centre Court at the All England Club.
It was in 2014 when it seemed as though she had the world at her feet, reaching back-to-back semi-finals at the Australian and French Opens.
Bouchard then went one better at Wimbledon to reach the final, only to lose out to Petra Kvitova. Tennis, it seemed, was providing more than just a path to athletic greatness.
“Tennis, first of all, is a great sport for that sex appeal side,” Bouchard told YouTuber Valeria Lipovetsky in a wide-ranging interview that touched on public scrutiny and the evolution of the women’s game.
“We’re wearing short skirts, we’re wearing tank tops. It’s fun to turn on the TV and watch that. Right away I was able to get great marketing deals off the court. Being asked to be in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition a few times.
“Exploring that path was definitely on my to-do list. It’s definitely part of who I am because I think it’s great.”
The off-court deals have helped her become more than just a fantastic athlete. “Tennis is the only thing I know, but it can’t be the only thing I’ll ever do in my life,” she continued. “So I found it very interesting to be in the magazines or do fashion stuff and see that I really enjoyed these things as well.”
Top ten most marketable athletes of 2015
Bouchard was top of the world in 2015, according to SportsPro’s list of stars
- Genie Bouchard (tennis)
- Neymar (football)
- Jordan Spieth (golf)
- Missy Franklin (swimming)
- Lewis Hamilton (Formula 1)
- Virat Kohli (cricket)
- Steph Curry (basketball)
- Kei Nishikori (tennis)
- Katarina Johnson-Thompson (athletics)
- Usain Bolt (athletics)
Bouchard was only 20 when her tennis career was in an upward trajectory, however, results started to slump in 2015. There were first round exits at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, before suffering an unusual injury at the US Open.
She slipped on cleaning fluid in the locker room after playing a late match, subsequently suffering a concussion that ruled her out for the rest of the year.
Bouchard eventually won damages against the United States Tennis Association for loss of earnings.
Her ranking plummeted from number five in the world to outside the top 100 since that Wimbledon final.
However, in 2017 she became the talk of the sporting world for something other than her exploits on the tennis court.
She made a wager with a fan on Twitter on the outcome of the Super Bowl when she backed the Atlanta Falcons to beat the New England Patriots.
Bouchard accepted a bet to go on a date with the fan if the Falcons lost… cue one of the greatest sporting comebacks in history by the Patriots.
True to her word, she went on several dates with the fan before things fizzled out.
“That infamous moment in my life when I tweeted when I shouldn’t have just turned into this whole thing,” she said in 2020. “I’m in touch with him casually. Sometimes he plays hard to get and I’m like, ‘Bro, we’re friends, text me back, it’s OK’.
“We’ve hung out a bunch of times. I think he has a girlfriend now though, maybe that’s why he doesn’t text me back.”
Results continued to stagnate as she lost early in the Grand Slams and in 2019 at one point she suffered a streak of 13 straight defeats.
In 2021, a tear in her shoulder forced her to spend 17 months on the sidelines that saw her drop out of the world rankings entirely.
It was an injury that even made her consider retiring from the sport.
“I would be lying if I said it didn’t cross my mind because it was such a long progression to get back,” Bouchard admitted.
“It kind of takes a year, a year and a half to get back and then I only play two years after, is it worth it, you know? But I decided it was worth it. I felt I would regret it if I let an injury stop me.”
Since then, she has not played in the main draw of a Grand Slam, losing in the qualifiers and most recently failing in a bid to play at Wimbledon again.
Now she is looking at Andy Murray and his comeback from a career-threatening hip injury to give her hope.
“Andy’s playing challengers and he’s winning them, which is great,” she said.
“It makes you miss those big moments. Every year that goes by puts the results that I’ve achieved in the past into more perspective because I see how hard it was.
“My knee has been hurting me since last year, but I’m trying to just take it as a part of my job. I had a couple of years really recently where I wasn’t able to play due to shoulder surgery. There’s moments in rehab when the end goal is so far away that it feels hard to keep going. Of course, you have tough moments.”
In the meantime, though, she has joined the growing list of athletes signing up for pickleball. Tom Brady, Kim Clijsters, Nick Kyrgios, Naomi Osaka, Patrick Mahomes and LeBron James have all invested in the sport.
Considered a cross between tennis and ping-pong, pickleball is played on a smaller badminton-size court and uses plastic paddles and hollowed-out balls, allowing intense rallies played at close-quarters.