The USTA didn’t give Eugenie Bouchard a wild card last week, making her fight her way into the main draw via last week’s qualifiers. Then it placed the 24-year-old Montreal native on tiny Court 12 with its 1,700 seats for her first-round match — the last on Tuesday’s day card.
But she’s still around, even if the USTA was hoping she wouldn’t be. Six months after her USTA lawsuit was settled, Bouchard posted her first main-draw Open victory since her infamous locker-room tumble.
Bouchard, whose ranking has plummeted to 137, won 6-3, 6-1 over Harmony Tan of France. Ironically, the 20-year-old Tan, ranked 396th, received a wild card.
“I felt really bad coming here since the accident in 2015,’’ Bouchard said. “This year is the first year I’ve won a match since then. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I’m happy that’s behind me — the lawsuit.’’
Bouchard, once ranked fourth in the world, sued the USTA six weeks after the 2015 Open, alleging she slipped on cleaning fluid in a darkened locker room. She withdrew from the Open and didn’t play the rest of the year after reportedly sustaining a concussion.
After the settlement was reached in February, the USTA released a statement the matter “has reached an amicable conclusion for both parties. We also wish Ms. Bouchard the best of luck moving forward.”
Those wishes did not extend to a wild card, however, and Bouchard said she didn’t expect one. In 2014, she made the Wimbledon finals and semifinals of the Australian Open and French Open.
But Bouchard is stopping short at any bold predictions.
“It’s not guaranteed to get through the qualifying,’’ Bouchard said. “The qualifying is still very tough. You saw some top seeds lost. I say in my head it’s like playing another tournament kind of. I played a tournament last week and this is a new tournament.’’
After getting through as a qualifier on Friday, Bouchard took in a Drake concert and readied for field courts where several hundred enthusiastic fans rooted for a player who once figured to be the next women’s star.
“New York has always showed me so much love since 2013,’’ Bouchard said. “I love the crowd here. They’re very into it.”
