The concussion symptoms from the US Open have comeback to haunt Eugenie Bouchard once again. In Beijing in her first match back against Andrea Petkovic, the Canadian was forced to retire in the second set of her opening round match of the China Open due to dizziness. Bouchard lost the opening set 2-6, and the second set was tied at one apiece before she called it quits.
Going from bad to worse for Bouchard
Before calling it quits against Petkovic, Bouchard was seen teary-eyed on her chair as she was receiving medical attention to make sure she was alright. After the match ended, the German said that Bouchard told her that she felt very dizzy and the symptoms of the concussion came back when “she gets physically active”.
This was Bouchard’s statement after retiring from her match, “Unfortunately, I did not feel well enough to finish the match. It is really frustrating as I was very much looking forward to play the China Open. I thought I was physically ready, but unfortunately the symptoms of my concussion came back. I want to thank all of my fans and the China Open for their support; I hope to get well soon and am very much looking forward to returning to the China Open next year.”
A withdrawal from Tokyo and Wuhan and a retirement in Beijing
The Canadian superstar was originally planning on returning to the tour in Tokyo two weeks ago. However with the concussion, which she received on September 4th after her third round win over Dominika Cibulkova at the US Open, she forced her to withdraw from the event. The following week in Wuhan was where Bouchard was supposed to make her return. She flew from Florida to China to attempt to play, but the ongoing concussion symptoms forced her to drop out of the tournament just hours before her match against Belinda Bencic. She would be replaced by lucky loser Alja Tomljanovic.
This retirement does not bode well for Bouchard. She is scheduled to play next week in Hong Kong but with the way things are going, it looks very likely she’ll withdraw from that as well. Since she missed Wuhan, where she was a defending finalist, the Canadian’s ranking has slipped to 38. With the concussion and sheer lack of points, it looks like she will be missing out on the WTA Year-End Championships in Singapore where she participated in the round-robin portion of the event last year. As it stands, it looks highly unlikely that she will be seeded for next year’s Australian Open where she is defending quarterfinal points.