"Got my butt kicked...lot of tears after that one" - Eugenie Bouchard revisits "tough" loss in Wimbledon 2014 final to Petra Kvitova
Eugenie Bouchard recently revisited her loss to Petra Kvitova in the women's singles final at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships. The Canadian was no match for the dominant Czech, as she succumbed to a 3-6, 0-6 defeat in only 55 minutes.
It was a history-making tournament for Bouchard, as she became the first Canadian-born player, representing Canada, to reach a singles final at a Major. She had set up her clash against 2011 Wimbledon champion Kvitova in the final after breezing past Daniela Hantuchova, Silvia Soler Espinosa, Andrea Petkovic, Alize Cornet, Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep.
Remarkably, the Canadian had not dropped a single set on her way to the final of the prestigious grass-court Grand Slam. Recently, Bouchard was featured as a guest in an episode of The Mental Game by Brandon Saho podcast. During the episode, the 30-year-old was asked about how she felt following her humiliating loss to Kvitova.
In her response, Bouchard said that the loss was "tough" for her to swallow because she had reached the final without losing a set.
"That was really tough for me, especially because to get to the final I actually hadn't lost a set, so I was really winning all my matches quite, in a straightforward way. And then I got my butt kicked in a straightforward way in the final," Bouchard said.
The Canadian also laid bare the sorrow that she experienced in the aftermath of the heartbreaking defeat.
"It was tough, and I didn't feel like I deserved to win at all because I totally got dominated on the court, but yeah, a lot of tears after that one," Bouchard added.
Eugenie Bouchard was named WTA's Most Improved Player in 2014 despite loss of form following Wimbledon final heartbreak
Bouchard's form drastically dipped following her 2014 Wimbledon campaign. Her next outing after the Wimbledon final came at the Canadian Open, where she was the No. 5 seed. Having received a first-round bye, she faced Shelby Rogers in the second round. Inexplicably, Bouchard was stunned as she fell to a three-set loss.
Next, the Canadian crashed out of the Cincinnati Open in another abject second-round defeat to Svetlana Kuznetsova. Bouchard's US Open campaign did not last long either, as Ekaterina Makarova got the better of the Canadian in the fourth round.
However, she showed some signs of improvement at the inaugural Wuhan Open, where she set up another final meeting against Kvitova. Once again though, it was the Czech who triumphed. Her last outing in 2014 came at the WTA Finals, where she was eliminated in the round-robin stage.
Despite her loss of form following her miraculous Wimbledon, WTA named Bouchard the Most Improved Player on the tour in 2014 at the end of the season.