Eugenie Bouchard has taken a wild card into next week’s Qatar Total Open. The Canadian number one has not played a match since her second round loss to Agnieszka Radwanska at the Australian Open. Since then, the Canadian has cited injury as her reason for withdrawing from the Rio Open this week.
Bouchard Misses Rio But Was Present In Toronto
The Canadian said that she was going to miss the Rio Open in order to focus on practice. However, some people have questioned this decision to pull out of Rio due to Bouchard’s appearances in Toronto this past weekend. This past weekend, Toronto hosted NBA All-Star Weekend.
The former Wimbledon finalist took part in the Celebrity All-Star Game for Team Canada. She was not the only tennis player to take part in the game. Good friend and fellow Canadian Milos Raonic also took part in the Celebrity All-Star Game, throwing down a dunk in the game. Bouchard was also present during Saturday night’s festivities which involved the Skills Challenge, the Three-Point Shootout, and the Dunk Contest.
Two More Wild Cards In Qatar
The former top five player was not the only player to receive a wild card into the event. Turkey’s Cagla Buyukakcay was one of two other players to get into the main draw via the wild card. Buyukakcay has not played in a tour-level main draw event this year. She lost in qualifying tournaments in Shenzhen and the Australian Open. The Turk has picked up one win on the season in a Challenger event in Andrezieux-Boutheon.
The final wild card to date has gone to Fatma Al-Nabhani. The Oman native is ranked 379 in the world and can use this wild card to vault up the rankings potentially. The 24-year-old has only played one tournament this year, and that was the Glasgow Challenger where she lost in the opening round.