Is Canada’s Bouchard The Next WTA Marketing Face?

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 3rd February 2014

Is Canada's Bouchard The Next WTA Marketing Face?

epa04033638 Eugenie Bouchard of Canada holds a Wombat doll as she celebrates after winning her quarterfinal match against Ana Ivanovic of Serbia at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 21 January 2014. EPA/MAST IRHAM |

Will Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard become the next marketing face of the women’s game, or is it just her agency pushing that thought in hopes of gaining her new contracts?

The attractive 19-year-old Canadian reached the semis of the Australian open, which dramatically raised her profile, so much so that the up and comer was invited to go with the WTA brass to Singapore for official launch of the WTA Championships right after the Australian Open.

“She is an incredibly talented athlete, and a very marketable brand ambassador for any company that wants to get involved with her,” Stacey Allaster, chief executive of the WTA told the BBC. “She is gracious, humble, confident, smart and funny, she is the whole package. She is very marketing-savvy.”

While those are comments sent out for public consumption and clearly Bouchard has some positive going for her, insiders says she is not said to be easy to deal with behind the scenes as an Ana Ivanovic or Li Na might be. She is said to be more like big earners Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova are, a bit more temperamental, but she is not anywhere near as successful as those two are and still has to prove herself on court and off.

Her agents at Lagardère are out working hard to get her new sponsorships, but no new ones have been announced yet. Coming by big sponsorships in tennis are hard to come by. Only a handful of WTA players make in the millions off-court annually.

Currently Bouchard has tennis-related deals with Nike, Babolat and TournaGrip and also has deals with Rogers Communications. Even though she is from a wealthy family, Tennis Canada pays for her coaching and gives her communications support.

Tennis Canada has done well raising her profile even before the Australian Open. After her trip Down Under, she added some 100,000 new likes to her Facebook page, taking that total to 243,000 and now has 112,000 followers on Twitter.

During the Aussie Open, she also attracted a local group of young male fans called the Genie Army, who were dressed in the red and white colors of Canada. After her first couple of wins on the backcourts, Bouchard’s team provided them tickets to her stadium court matches, not an unusual practice in tennis. The Genie Army gave her a stuffed animal after every match.

“There is not a huge pool of female sporting talent in the world which is globally recognized,” Nigel Currie of agency Brand Rapport said, “There is a big of a void in that area. Anyone who can get into the top two or three tennis players is of appeal.”

Topics: 10sballs, Ana Ivanovic, Canada, Eugenie Bouchard, Li Na, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, Wta