Eugenie Bouchard emerged in 2014 as a rising star in the WTA. She reached the semis in France, Australia and the Wimbledon finals in 2014. Her ranking shot to world no. 5. For whatever reason, sports writers speculate about motivation, injury, focus on endorsements etc, she has seen mixed results lately. She is still one of the most marketable athletes. What Genie has accomplished by age 23 is considerable. When she arrived at New Haven she asked the tournament director if a private tour of Yale could be arranged. She seemed genuinely excited and acted as though she might really walk away from the sport and go to school.
Genie ended up retweeting this video on her Twitter account. This was significant because her online following or “Genie Army” is large compared to other female tennis players. She may have regretted sharing later because she ended up having to tweet to fans and the public that she was not actually leaving tennis for college. It was too late, articles abounded online and the video spread bringing positive attention to New Haven and the tournament.
