Tennis queen suddenly shines in a completely new sport

Eugenie Bouchard is celebrating success in pickleball and surprising the sports world with her talent for the trend sport.

Munich – Eugenie Bouchard was once celebrated as a tennis prodigy. In 2014 she reached the final of Wimbledon and climbed into the top 5 in the world rankings. But the Canadian’s brilliant career was overshadowed by injuries that caused her to slip to 985th place in the world tennis rankings.

Bouchard, who now appears more as a model and influencer, has now found a new sporting passion: pickleball.

Bouchard beats number three in the world

The trend sport from the USA combines elements from tennis, badminton and table tennis. The differences to tennis are significant: the ball is slower, the racket is smaller and the playing field is about a third as large. This new challenge seems to inspire Bouchard. She recently defeated number three in the pickleball world rankings, Lea Jansen, 11:4 and 11:8 and thus reached the semifinals of a tournament.

Bouchard’s joy about this success was enormous: “I’m so excited, I can’t even say how happy I am,” the 30-year-old tells her over 2.3 million followers on Instagram.

Tennis prodigy celebrates success away from the tennis court

In addition to her sporting activities, Bouchard is also successful as a model and influencer. She has been featured in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition and has had endorsement deals with major brands like Coca-Cola.

This diversity of her interests is further reflected in her philosophy. In a conversation with online star Valeria Lipovetsky, Bouchard emphasized that she doesn’t want to limit herself to a single sport: “Why should I allow myself to be pigeonholed?” Tennis is the only thing I know, but it can’t do that It’ll be the only thing I’ll ever do in my life.” Now she seems to have her new calling in pickleball… (kk)