MELBOURNE—Eugenie Bouchard says that even though she again reached the second week of a Grand Slam tournament, she wasn’t satisfied at reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, where she lost to Maria Sharapova. The 20-year-old Bouchard has reached at least the fourth round in each of the past five majors; in 2014, she reached the semis of the Australian Open and Roland Garros, and the final of Wimbledon.
“I'm never happy with losing,” she said. “I wanted to obviously win today, win the tournament. I feel like I dealt with pressure, outside expectations well. I wasn't really focused on the whole defending thing. I really just tried to block that out of my mind. So I think that helped me get through the first week, get through some matches that could have been tricky. But I always want to do better, especially than the year before. I'm always trying to aim for that.”
Bouchard has yet to decide whether to continue working with her coach, Diego Ayala. She worked with him while in Melbourne.
“I'm going to focus on now. I'm happy with the team I had here,” she said. “I think we did okay, but it's something I need to adjust. Now that the tournament's over for me, I'm going to look at these decisions and see if I need to make one or not.”
The Canadian has yet to decide whether she will play Fed Cup against the Czech Republic at home, February 7-8. The announcement will be made for all players on Wednesday, January 28.
“I'm going to go visit the family, that's for sure,” Bouchard said. “Take some time off, rest the body a bit.”