Tennis star Eugenie Bouchard brands Maria Sharapova ‘annoying’ & a ‘d**k’

Eugenie Bouchard has branded Maria Sharapova “annoying” and says the former Russian player used to try and intimidate her whenever they played. 

Bouchard, who reached the final of Wimbledon back in 2014, played Sharapova on five occasions but lost four of those meetings. 

Speaking on the Pardon my Take podcast, the Canadian opened up about her experiences on the WTA tour and explained which player was a ‘d**k’ during warm-ups. 

In answer to the podcast host’s question, Bouchard responded: “Oh yeah, Sharapova. She just tries to hit the ball as hard as she can in the warm-up. It’s so annoying. She’s trying to intimidate you but it didn’t work on me.”

Asked if she ever considered refusing to warm up in such a scenario, Bouchard stressed: “The umpire can’t force you to do anything.

“Ultimately the umpire can’t force the person to warm up. You could just walk on the court and decide not to warm up if you don’t want to but normally most of us just do some easy rallying to feel good and some try to do winners and try [to] hit as hard as they can.”

Despite finding Sharapova “annoying at times”, Bouchard did admit she would’ve liked to face the Russian again. 

It was the Canadian who won the final meeting between the pair at the Madrid Masters in 2017 – triumphing in three sets 7-5 2-6 6-4. 

“Unfortunately we can’t play anymore,” Bouchard said. “I mean, she’s a great competitor and we had battles for sure but no we can’t play anymore. She’s retired.”

Having reached the Wimbledon final in 2014, Bouchard reached a career-high ranking of fifth.

But since then, the Canadian has struggled and has failed to win a WTA tournament for eight years. 

As of now, she is ranked 1459th in the world and lost in qualifying for the Australian Open