Eugenie Bouchard recalled allowing social media negativity to brainwash her at the height of her career in 2014, which she said affected her confidence and her game. The Canadian tennis star juggled fame and social media stardom when she reached the Wimbledon final that year at age 20 in 2014 and earned a career-high world ranking of No. 5.
But Bouchard, whose bikini photos and fashion posts are a staple on her social media pages, said in a recent interview with The Times that she was simultaneously struggling with hate online. “Back in the day, I could train six hours during the day before later posting on social media about being at the movies and I would get hate,” Bouchard said. “It was like, well, social media isn’t an exact representation of my day.
“It’s great that the world has changed over the past 10 years and now not only is it acceptable to do off-court things, it’s actually encouraged. Back in the day, I felt like I was being shoved into a box, like you can’t do anything besides tennis. I was like, tennis has given me opportunities to explore the fashion world, TV and all these other things.
Why would I say no? We’re talking about my life in its entirety here. “I would get so much hate for doing anything other than tennis. It was a burden I would bear on my shoulders and it was really hard.
At least it’s more accepted now. Not that I was the only pioneer to do these things but I feel like I made it a little bit more normal.” Bouchard recei.