After reaching a Wimbledon final in front of the best-behaved crowd in tennis, Canadian Eugenie Bouchard was thriving in the opposite end of the cultural spectrum as she continued a run at the rowdy New York hothouse of the US Open.
The seventh seed who lost the Wimbledon final to Petra Kvitova, played her last two Open matches under the lights at Ashe. And the 20-year-old was been impressed with the entire experience.
The player named for British royalty (Princess Eugenie, daughter of Sarah Ferguson) had been doing well with Gotham’s beer-fuelled masses who never hesitate to make their presence known to players.
That’s fine with Bouchard. “I heard some [shouts] vaguely, I really try to block it out and zone in. I just felt there was noise all the time. The changeovers were like a party scene on the court, the loud music, the fans. It was definitely an entertainment type of experience.
“I think that’s really cool for the fans to get into it. But I definitely felt the support out there. It’s really cool playing in such a huge stadium. It’s like nothing else, I guess.”
Bouchard said that even late starting times and post-midnight finishes are all a part of the particular ambience. “It’s part of the US Open experience. You don’t get there at the French Open or Wimbledon,” she said. It’s exciting; I would be fine playing at midnight, that would be cool.”
Topics: Genie Bouchard, sports news, US Open tennis