Players wished me luck ‘privately’: Bouchard

Bouchard’s strong assertion comes after her thumping 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 win against the former World No. 1 for the first time in five meetings in the second round of the Madrid Open. 

Labelling Sharapova as a ‘cheater’, Bouchard had last week suggested that the Russian player should have been kicked out of the sport for life, instead of welcoming her with a series of wildcards for high-profile tournaments.

Following the win, the Canadian said that she definitely had a lot of motivation going into the clash as many other players had come to her privately to wish her good luck. 

“I definitely had some extra motivation going into Monday. I was actually quite inspired before the match because I had a lot of players coming up to me privately wishing me good luck,” Bouchard told agencies. 

“Players I don’t normally speak to, getting a lot of texts from people in the tennis world that were just rooting for me. I wanted to do it for myself, but also all these people. It showed me that most people have my opinion, and they were just maybe scared to speak out, but privately I’ve gotten a lot of support, so I was inspired and motivated to play,” she added. 

Meanwhile, Sharapova insisted there was no extra disappointment on her part for having lost to Bouchard despite earlier vowing to let her tennis do the talking ahead of the match.