The top women’s seeds at the French Open are all gone, but the tournament’s organizers can’t be too upset with one of the semifinals that will take place Thursday.
Maria Sharapova, the former world No. 1 and longtime glamour girl of tennis, will square off against 20-year-old Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, the rising star who has been winning over fans with her fresh looks and bubbly persona.
Like Sharapova, Bouchard is tall, blond and ready-to-sponsor — and has the game to match.
Since losing to Sharapova in the second round of last year’s French Open, Bouchard has climbed steadily through the rankings, punctuated by a fan-favorite run to the Australian Open semifinals this winter as the 30th seed. She won her maiden WTA title last week in Nuremberg, Germany, setting herself up for a strong run at Roland Garros.
Though Bouchard grew up idolizing Sharapova, she made it clear she will not be blinded by the Russian’s star power.
“We’re not friends, so there is that,” she said Tuesday after her quarterfinal victory over Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro. “Of course as a child I looked up to her, and I remember watching her in the finals of Wimbledon and, you know, thought what she was doing was so cool and I wanted to do the same thing. We’re in the semis of a Grand Slam, so I’m going to respect her, but not put her too high on a pedestal and really just battle.”
This isn’t the first time Bouchard has projected a no-nonsense, detached approach. In April, before Canada took on Slovakia in a Fed Cup matchup, she did not shake her opponent’s hand before the match, calling the custom “lame.”
Bouchard expanded on her attitude on Tuesday.
“I don’t think the tennis tour is the place to have friends,” she explained. “For me, it’s all competition.”
Sharapova, perhaps sensing Bouchard coming for her trophy-winning, cover girl perch in the sport, said she has a similar attitude.
“I treat my career and my work as a very serious profession, and I know that what has got me my success is the fact that I’m a big competitor and that I don’t want to give anyone a chance,” she said. “This is a battlefield for me, and I want to win.”