"I had a normal preseason training,” she said. “I just, before that, had taken more time off than usual."
Bouchard recently talked about deciding to take a longer break than usual during the offseason, and planned to do more training following the Australian Open. She pointed to her heavy schedule during the hard-court season, and shin splits that led her to withdraw from the Asian events. Bouchard finished last season with two first-round defeats.
"I played like, seven, eight tournaments in a row,” she said. “And even though I wasn't going far in each one, I was still—the mentality of, you know, going from tournament to tournament and always that stress of a tournament week after week after week. Especially after the Quebec City tournament, obviously, which is at home and a lot more emotional and really tough to play in.”
Bouchard, who also went back and forth between coaches last season—recently reuniting with Thomas Hogstedt—says the break helped.
"I really needed it, but I feel like it helped because I'm super motivated,” she said. “I just need to get back into it."
Once ranked as high as fifth in the world, Bouchard has dropped to No. 46.
