Eugenie Bouchard joins Elina Svitolina at Oeiras ITF tournament with main draw wildcard

Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard has been handed a main draw wild card for the upcoming ITF Oeiras Ladies Open, where she will join Elina Svitolina to add impressive star power to the tournament. The Ukrainian also received a wildcard into the main draw in Oeiras.

Bouchard, a former World No. 5 and currently ranked 292 on the WTA Tour, is on the comeback trail after battling multiple injuries and poor form.

The Canadian has taken part in just three tournaments so far this year. She advanced to the Round-of-32 at the WTA 250 Copa Colsanitas in Bogota, Colombia, having previously exited in the qualifiers of the ASB Classic and the Australian Open.

This will be Bouchard's first appearance at the ITF Oeiras Ladies Open since 2014.

Eugenie Bouchard advanced to the second round of a tournament for the first time in 2023 when she got the better of Swiss tennis player Ylena In-Albon 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the recently concluded Bogota Open.

However, her run was cut short by fourth seed Kamilla Rakhimova in the second round, as the Russian prevailed 6-0, 6-7(7), 6-4 in a pulsating encounter.

Some of the best moments in Eugenie Bouchard's career

Eugenie Bouchard at the 2022 US Open.

Eugenie Bouchard made her WTA debut in 2009 as a 15-year-old. She won her first title at the 2014 Nürnberger Versicherungscup, a French Open warm-up tournament, where she beat Karolína Pliskova 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in the final. She was the first Canadian to win a WTA singles title since Aleksandra Wozniak at the Stanford Classic in 2008 and the sixth in history.

She followed it up by making history when she became the first Canadian player to reach a Grand Slam singles final at Wimbledon, after becoming the first WTA player to make the semifinals of the first three majors of the season since Dinara Safina in 2009.

However, her dreams of a Grand Slam title were dashed as she was beaten by Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-0 in the final.

Eugenie Bouchard achieved her best results in 2014 and 2015 at the US Open, where she reached the fourth round on both occasions. In 2014, Bouchard was recognized for her outstanding performances and received the WTA Most Improved Player award. This was due to her reaching a career-high ranking of No. 5 in the world.

Overall, the 29-year-old has one WTA title to her name, along with seven runner-up trophies, the most recent of which came at the 2021 Abierto Zapopan in a loss to Sara Sorribes Tormo.