IF Eugenie Bouchard plays Petra Kvitova as well as she plays the media, this weekend’s women’s Wimbledon final could be over in a flash.
Bouchard certainly knows how to make the hacks tick, with a nice colour line for every press conference.
Tennis players are great at speaking for 15 minutes and saying nothing of note.
Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova trudge into the post-match press conferences like surly teenagers, seemingly bidding to smash away as many one word answers as aces.
But 20-year old Bouchard – perhaps not yet sullied by the constant pressure of the tour and probing of the press – is a breath of fresh air.
After playing up her love of the Royal family, yesterday she used her success to flirt with Justin Bieber and jokingly labelled some journalists as lame as they gleefully played along with the game.
And then there are the marriage proposals…via Twitter, obviously.
But you shouldn’t write off Bouchard as just a pretty face or doubt her blonde ambition, after becoming Canada’s first women’s Grand Slam finalist.
“I’m not looking forward to the result of the final, I’m just looking forward to playing the match first and foremost,” she said.
“I’m waiting for a big moment to go nuts. Of course, achieving a lifelong dream like winning a slam is very exciting to me.
“But I feel like my job is not done here, so there’s no need for a huge celebration because I’m still working. I still have another match.
“Right now I just feel very calm and proud of myself, but I know I have another step.”
Lucie Safarova hadn’t dropped her set as she flew below the radar to her firstever Grand Slam and showed no signs of nerves on her big stage debut.
Safarova and Kvitova are close friends and training partners and team-mates the Czech Republic Fed Cup team. As they waited to walk out they almost looked like doubles partners as they chatted and smiled in matching Nike headbands and dresses.
However, it was soon down to business and the first set was close, decided by a tight tie break, before Kvitova’s experience told and Safarova’s resolve broke – the final score 7-6, 6-1.
It was finally a moment to smile about because since her win here three years ago, Kvitova has exited before the quarter-finals in seven of the 11 Grand Slam tournaments that have followed.
“These last three years have been really up and down. I think people expected more of me,” she said.
“I’ve still been in the world’s top ten and I’ve been doing everything I could to make it. I’ve been practicing very hard but women’s tennis is incredible tough.
“I’ve had to learn a lot about myself. I’ve had to deal with the pressure of being a player that people expected to win.
“In some ways I won Wimbledon quite young, not that I’d change anything. I’m happy it happened but it was difficult to handle some things, I’m only 24 now.
“But I’m back in the final again and I’m feeling well.
I’m not getting carried away, there’s still another match to win and I want to be focussed on that now.”
The picture of a young Bouchard taken with Maria Sharapova has been extensively republished this week and her performances here – she also reached the semi-finals of the Australian and French Opens – have increased her marketability.
Rankings and titles don’t equal money in women’s tennis. Sharapova, with five career Slam titles, is worth more than Serena, who has won 17. The value of her endorsements, according to Forbes, is double.
“I see it as a compliment to be compared to someone like Sharapova, who has won five slams,” added Bouchard.
“She’s a great champion and I see it in a positive light but also I’m my own person.’’
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