Confident.
Determined.
Tough.
Those words embody Genie Bouchard. It’s nothing new. In fact, it was a year ago at the Australian Open that the world became privy to her almost unnerving sense of self. Bouchard isn’t just happy to be here—she believes she belongs. And that belief carried her to the semifinals in Melbourne, Paris and all the way to the Wimbledon final in 2014.
So imagine if I told you that she is more confident, more determined and tougher now than she was a year ago.
“She did really well here last year,” Canadian Fed Cup captain Sylvain Bruneau explained over the phone from his Melbourne hotel room a day before her third-round match. “But the way she’s started this year is in a better fashion than last year. She’s hitting the ball really well, really crisp.”
That was evident in Bouchard’s 6–2, 6–4 win over Anna-Lena Friedsam in the opening round of the Aussie Open and even more so in an impressive 6–0, 6–3 second-round win over Kiki Bertens.
“I think she has had a really good start,” Bruneau added. “Two very solid matches. She’s well focused, very fit and she’s had some really good practice.”
But her practice routine—or at least her company—has changed since last season. At the end of 2014, Bouchard parted ways with longtime coach Nick Saviano.
“Nick and Eugenie were a really good team,” Bruneau said. “They did some really good things. With Nick, there was security. Now you go into the unknown a little bit. But she is very, very determined. She’s so focused and so tough and I had a feeling that she’d be fine [despite the change]. And she is.”
In Australia, Bouchard is working with Diego Ayala, a coach and hitting partner who she’s known since her junior days. Bruneau, fitness coach Scott Burns and a physiotherapist also accompanied Bouchard to Melbourne.
“I think we’ve got great communication, great chemistry going on,” said Bruneau. “[Ayala] has really been helping her. She really likes him and relies on him. There’s a team around her and it seems to be working well so far.”
Bouchard and her team will face their greatest test in Melbourne in the third round against Caroline Garcia, a 21-year-old from France who beat Bouchard in their only WTA match to date last year in Acapulco.
When Garcia was just 17 years old, she was two games away (6–3, 4–1) from beating Maria Sharapova in straight sets in the second round of the 2011 French Open. At the time, Andy Murray quickly took to Twitter:
Garcia didn’t win a game after that tweet from Murray, and Sharapova won 11 games in a row to avoid the second-round upset. But as Garcia has admitted, she wasn’t ready for that level and wasn’t ready for the attention—at least, not yet.
But maybe now, nearly four years later, she’s ready.
Ranked 36th in the world, Garcia has gained valuable match experience and has one WTA title to her name, the same amount that Bouchard does. But Garcia hasn’t enjoyed the same big-tourney success than Bouchard has. Garcia has never gotten past the third round at a Grand Slam, but in Melbourne she already has an upset under her belt after beating Svetlana Kuznetsova in the opening round.
“She’s got weapons. She’s got a good serve,” Bruneau said. “Genie will need to be playing at her best. I’m sure Garcia is going to come in on fire… It will be a good test.”
It’s a test that Garcia will be well studied for. Her coach, Nathalie Tauziat, used to coach Bouchard. But as Bruneau noted simply, “Genie will be ready.”
Confidence, determination and toughness seem to be contagious.