Eugenie Bouchard Re-Opens Forgotten Sexist Controversy in a Brutally Honest Take on Popularising Tennis – ‘Whatever Sells Our Sport’

Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard took a retrospective tour of her career in 2015! Known not ready to cry over spilled milk, Bouchard shared an interesting side of her perception about a past controversy. As she remembered how a “twirll” brought a storm in the media, Bouchard leaves a great amusement sharing her thoughts on why the fraternity “would never ask a guy the same question.

The official Instagram page of Valeria Lipovetsky shared a clip with Canadian WTA star Eugenie Bouchard. In this clip, fans spotted Bouchard taking a seat in Lipovetsky’s podcast Not Alone and speaking about one of her career controversies that happened in 2015. When Liptovetsky asked Bouchard to tell about it in detail, she said- “was on the court doing an interview with a reporter, and he asked me about outfits, and then, he was like, oh, like, show us your outfit, do a twirl. Right away I thought it was weird, but I’m like, in front of, you know, 10,000 people, so I’m gonna obviously do it, and so I twirled, and in the press afterwards, I mean, it just went insane.”

On this note, this controversy took place in the second round after the Canadian defeated Kiki Bertens in the Australian Open 2015. Commentator Ian Cohen posed an unexpected question for her, which landed Bouchard in a moment of surprise and unbelief. Cohen asked- “Now yesterday, or last night, you tweeted that you loved Serena [Williams]’ outfit. … She was kind enough to give us a twirl. Can you give us a twirl and tell us about your outfit?” 

While Bouchard was taken aback by the question, she further explained how she dealt with the situation gracefully. She also shared how she felt about it nine years later. “I was like, look, in the moment I didn’t feel bad, you know, it was what it was, you know, then people started talking about how sexist it was.”

Eugenie Bouchard’s Australian Open 2015 controversy also extended its reach to Serena Williams, who is famous for her on-court “twirls” after a victory. When Williams was asked to drop her opinion, she didn’t exactly make an opinion but somehow expressed her discomfort with the situation. “A commentator asked me to twirl. I wouldn’t ask Rafa or Roger to twirl. Whether it’s sexist or not, I don’t know. I can’t answer that. I didn’t really want to twirl because I was just like, you know, I don’t need all the extra attention. But, yeah, it was fine”- said the Olympic gold-medalist former WTA star.

Bouchard, on the other hand, liked the fact that as women, athletes can bring something attractive for their viewers, which would help them “sell” their sport. She was optimistic that if women players can bring something different then why do they always have to be compared to the men’s standards? Bouchard’s question sheds on the differentiation of behavior towards ATP and WTA players.

While in Bouchard’s case, Williams didn’t make much of an opinion, she raised the issue of behavioral differentiation in tennis differently. In Williams’s US Open finals against Naomi Osaka in 2018, Williams accused the chair umpire of treating her unfairly. This former world’s number-one WTA star’s accusations were supported by veteran tennis legend Billy Jean King.

Serena Williams also shed light on the fraternity’s selective mentality towards ATP and WTA players

During Williams’s US Open 2018 finals against Naomi Osaka, Williams not only lost the match but pulled off a huge controversy that landed her a fine of $17000. The chair umpire of the match Carlos Ramos gave Williams a code violation for Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou helping her with hand signals. After that, Serena Williams received another point penalty as she smashed her racquet on the court. This made the American former tennis legend angry to the point that she said, “You stole a point from me and you are a thief,” and received her third penalty for verbally attacking the umpire.

Williams, standing on her point said to the umpire- “I’m here fighting for women’s rights and for women’s equality and for all kinds of stuff. For me to say ‘thief’ and for him to take a game, it made me feel like it was a sexist remark, He’s never taken a game from a man because they said ‘thief.’ For me it blows my mind. But I’m going to continue to fight for women,”

King came in Williams’s support stating how angry women are projected negatively than angry men. She said how emotional female athletes are called “hysterical”, whereas angry ATP players are termed “outspoken”. “Thank you, Serena Williams, for calling out this double standard. More voices are needed to do the same,”- she tweeted further.

Eugenie Bouchard and Serena Williams both represent how women athletes in tennis are treated with heavy scrutiny no matter what they do. While Bouchard explained how her charm has been projected negatively, Williams offered to see how even top-tier tennis players face behavioral differentiation in the fraternity.