New York: Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard suffered a head injury when she slipped and fell in the US Open locker room, forcing her out of women’s and mixed doubles and jeopardizing her fourth-round singles match Sunday.
The 21-year-old from Montreal sustained the injury late Friday and she agreed with medical staff advice to withdraw from two doubles matches set for her on Saturday.
“The severity of the injury was and continues to be assessed by the on-site medical personnel at the US Open,” US Open tournament director David Brewer said.
“No determination about competing in the singles competition has been made at this time. Ms. Bouchard will continue with medical evaluation and treatment.”
Bouchard was playing alongside Australian Nick Kyrgios in mixed doubles and Russia’s Elena Vesnina in women’s doubles and had taken special pride Friday in being the only woman remaining in all three events at the US Open.
“I think my loss was kind of a shock to me, a little bit of a wake-up call in a sense I had to get my act together a little bit,” Bouchard said after her third round win over Dominika Cibulkova on Friday.
The latest setback has been part of a year of struggles for Bouchard, who reached last year’s Australian and French Open semi-finals and the Wimbledon final, losing to Czech Petra Kvitova, as well as collecting her first WTA title at Nuremberg.
After a quarter-final run this year at the Australian Open, Bouchard dropped her first matches at Roland Garros and Wimbledon and is only 12-17 on the season. She had not won consecutive matches since March until this week.
But Bouchard has battled back with help from tennis legend Jimmy Connors, who works as an advisor and was set to watch her for the first time in their partrnership on Sunday if the match takes place.
“Working with Jimmy has really given me a different side of things, like a different point of view,” Bouchard said before her fall.
“He’s very energetic. He’s kind of lifted my spirits a little bit. He believes in me. He helped me kind of believe in myself more and regain that confidence. That has helped me.”
The 63-year-old American, a five-time US Open winner and eight-time Grand Slam champion whose last major trophy came at the 1983 US Open, bolstered Bouchard’s confidence.
“He said, ‘You’re too good to be having the results you’re having,’” Bouchard said of Connors. “He has definitely helped me in my time of need.”
