Eugenie Bouchard has admitted she still hasn’t watched her performance at the 2014 Wimbledon final – stating it is just “too painful” even a decade on. The Canadian tennis player had a meteoric rise throughout the year, winning her first WTA singles title and made it to two Grand Slam semi finals, at the Indian Wells Open and the French Open.
Bouchard made it to the women’s singles final at Wimbledon in 2014, defeating world number three Simona Halep in the semi-finals to become the first Canadian-born player representing Canada to make it to a Grand Slam singles final. She was defeated 6-3, 6-0 by former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, and struggled for form for a few years after this heartbreaking defeat.
The 30-year-old appeared on the Tennis Insider podcast to discuss her battles with mental health throughout her career – admitting that she is yet to watch the Wimbledon final back due to the pain it brings her.
Bouchard said: “I still, to this day, have not rewatched the finals, because I just can’t. It’s like, too painful for me. I got killed, which maybe is a blessing in disguise, because you know when you come so close to winning a match, and then you lose it, and you’re replaying over and over in your head what you could have done better on a break point or a match point… Like I said in the moment, it felt normal, like I was just putting my head down and working hard and playing well and just continuing this ride of confidence.
“I was so happy, and I wouldn’t really say surprised. It’s more like I believed in myself, or I’ve been working towards this every single day for for years and years and years. So it’s kind of happy, but I always knew I could do well and it was more of a relief for all the hard work and trusting yourself, because I believed I could do it.
“And then, I showed myself I could do it, so you kind of trust yourself and obviously looking back, I’m like, ‘wow, I did this crazy thing’, but in the moment I was in my little bubble for this match.”
The Canadian also expressed that she hadn’t ever felt nervous in the matches leading up to the Wimbledon final, but a physical reaction showed her how much this tournament really meant to her. Bouchard added: “It’s interesting, I never felt nervous before any of the matches in that tournament specifically, except for the final.
“I remember sitting in the locker room and feeling my hands sweat and like my hands like, never sweat. And so it was like a physical reaction that showed me, ‘wow, my brain is making me think about this differently’. So I was definitely very nervous for the final.”
The Montreal-born athlete is continuing to play tennis, most recently winning the BJK Cup with Canada for the first time in the country’s history in 2023.