Genie Bouchard will try to stall her free fall without coach Sam Sumyk by her side.
The 2014 Wimbledon finalist's spiraling season took another turn as she's split from Sumyk, who previously coached Victoria Azarenka to the world No. 1 ranking. The Bouchard-Sumyk split was confirmed by Stephanie Myles.
It is Bouchard's second coaching change since last November, when she split from Nick Saviano, who has returned to coaching Sloane Stephens. Saviano helped guide Bouchard to a break-out 2014 season in which she reached successive Grand Slam semifinals in Melbourne and Paris followed by her run to the Wimbledon final where she fell to Petra Kvitova.
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Bouchard had hoped to recapture her confidence and form with Sumyk, but her predictable aggressive baseline style predicated on taking the ball early has not evolved effectively. In a season of regression, Bouchard hasn't shown a Plan B or the versatility to sustain a Top 10 spot. Bouchard was ranked No. 7 when she began her partnership with Sumyk, she is now ranked No. 25 and is in Toronto practicing for next week's Rogers Cup.
The 21-year-old Montreal native is 2-11 in her last 13 matches and has suffered eight opening-round exits, including a French Open first-round loss to Kristina Mladenovic and a straight-sets Wimbledon loss to 117th-ranked Chinese qualifer Ying-Ying Duan.
After her Wimbledon ouster, Bouchard hinted a coaching change could be in the works when asked if she considered changes to her support team.
“Maybe I should,” said Bouchard at Wimbledon. “Yes, we've definitely not started well at all. But I believe in him and he believes in me. As of right now, it's still the plan. But there definitely has to be some improvement, some changes, because I expect to do a little better than this.”
Prior to her Roland Garros opening-round exit Sumyk suggested scar tissue from her losing streak had haunted his charge, leaving her "a bit tortured."
“She has a lot of character, but she’s a bit tortured at the moment,” Sumyk told L'Equipe. “Ambitious, very perfectionist people are naturally like that. Her game-style is a plus. She hits the ball cleanly. She’s not the most powerful but she has a monstrous capacity for work. Her ambition is obvious even if it’s a little shaky at the moment. It’s up to me to guide her and for the whole team to make her an athlete. She’s hungry to learn.”
Sumyk said pressure of expectation, combined with the fact opponents viewed her as "one of the most hated players on tour" left Bouchard feeling like she has a bulls-eye on her back.
"Everything changed for her after her final at Wimbledon, too fast actually,” he said. “She went from no one knows who she is to a Grand Slam final. That’s heavy. All the parameters change. When you have good results and rise in the rankings, you enter the circle of the most hated players on the tour. Everyone wants to kick your butt. You have to be ready for that.”
Bouchard, who is scheduled to appear at the Rogers Cup draw later today, has not yet hired a new coach. She is working with Serbian Marko Dragic, a former Saviano coaching disciple, who has trained with her in the past, according to Stephanie Myles.
Bouchard has slumped to an 8-14 record this season, with four of those eight wins coming during her run to the Australian Open quarterfinals at the start of the year.