It was never just about the tennis, Canada’s racquet-swinging sweetheart says.
Eugenie Bouchard revealed that the sport that made her famous also allowed the Montreal native to play up her “sex appeal side.”
“Tennis, first of all, is a great sport for that sex appeal side,” Bouchard said in an interview with YouTuber Valeria Lipovetsky. “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. I was 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.”
Bouchard, who has ranked as high as No. 5 in the world, also said that modeling helped her transcend the sports world.
“Why keep myself in a box? Why not try to become bigger or better or transcend tennis or explore other fields?” she rhetorically asked. “Tennis is the only thing I know, but it can’t be the only thing I’ll ever do in my life. 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.”
“(It’s) just increasing my fan base, my audience, which in turn helps me get better brand deals, better endorsements.
“Not just in a personal way for me, ‘OK I can actually make more money out of this.’ but in a general sense, ‘OK, we have someone who is maybe a casual fan who is going to come to the Miami Open to watch me play.’
“That’s good for tennis in general, for female tennis, for women’s sports, that’s good for everything.”
Bouchard burst onto the tennis scene at a young age, becoming the first Canadian ever, junior or pro, to win a major in singles title when she captured the Wimbledon Junior title in 2012 at 18 years old.
Two years later, she made Canadian tennis history again by reaching the women’s final at Wimbledon, only to finish runner-up to Petra Kvitova.
While she became a sporting celebrity – Bouchard competed in the NBA’s celebrity all-star game when the game was hosted in Toronto in 2016 – her career was derailed by injuries and wasn’t able to recapture her elite form on the courts.
She recently picked up a racquet sport of another kind: pickleball.
The PPA and Bouchard announced her signing on social media on Thursday, proclaiming the move “one of the biggest signings of the year.”
She also was in a long-term relationship with NFL quarterback Mason Rudolph, but the couple broke up in 2022, according to reports.