On Saturday, 25th ranked Eugenie Bouchard was forced to withdraw from doubles competition in the US Open after she slipped and fell in the locker room and injured her head.
Coming into Sunday, Bouchard still had not withdrawn from singles competition, where she had advanced to the fourth round and was set to take on Italian Roberta Vinci. Prior to her arrival, no details about her injury had been made available other than this statement from US Open Tournament Director David Brewer.
Genie Bouchard "slipped and fell in the locker room and sustained a head injury" after last night's win. pic.twitter.com/CLk2ZjYptt
— Bryan Armen Graham (@BryanAGraham) September 5, 2015
But when Bouchard arrived at the stadium, she looked completely out of it and it certainly appeared as though symptoms of a concussion were apparent. Bouchard was wearing sunglasses and a hood and appeared disoriented, even needing one of her handlers to guide her into the correct entrance. Soon after she arrived, word came down that she had in fact withdrawn from the competition with a concussion.
UPDATE: Eugenie #Bouchard has withdrawn from women's singles competition due to a concussion. #Vinci into the QFs. pic.twitter.com/NWRDXO0Ded
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 6, 2015
The fact that Bouchard even got that close to trying to give it a go when she was so clearly not able to walk on her own, much less play tennis, is scary. Thankfully, it didn’t quite get to the point where they allowed her to get back onto the court.
It’s an unfortunate scenario for the 21-year-old Canadian, who had been working on a revamped effort in the Open after a disappointing 2015 thus far. She is perhaps most-well known for advancing to the Finals of the 2014 Wimbledon, where she was defeated by Petra Kvitova.
(Via Vice Sports)
