The "it young lady" of the WTA Tour can discover some solace in Jankovic's losing-streak-turned-example of overcoming adversity. (AP Photo)
Keep in mind when, simply a year ago, Eugenie Bouchard was being touted as the new "it young lady" in tennis? Only five months back, we made the then-20-year-old the center of our 2015 season sneak peak. It was not without justifiable reason: The Canadian, who started 2014 positioned No. 32, had moved to No. 5 and came to the Australian and French Open elimination rounds and Wimbledon last along the way.
How things have changed. Nowadays, Bouchard is more inclined to be shelled with cynics and commentators than worshipping fans and plush toys. Her first-round win yesterday in Eastbourne over Alison Riske was only her second triumph in her last 12 matches. It was a transitory treatment: Earlier today, she resigned with a stomach harm while trailing Belinda Bencic 6-4, 3-0. Every time Bouchard has seemed to hit rock bottom this year, she's burrowed herself a more profound opening as she slipped outside the Top 10.
Still, Bouchard's augmented droop isn't too abnormal tennis has been witness to some fantastic losing streaks lately. Vince Spadea holds the record on the men's side with a psyche boggling 21 misfortunes in succession in 2000; Donald Young, once a colossal trust in American tennis, set up together a similarly wretched 17-match slip in 2012. Simply a year ago, previous French Open champion Francesca Schiavone endured nine straight misfortunes.
Be that as it may, from each droop comes an inevitable turnaround, and one of the more popular stories includes Jelena Jankovic. The Serbian is the proprietor of 13 WTA titles, five Grand Slam elimination round appearances, and a runner-up completion at the 2008 U.S. Open. In any case, in 2006, falling off a season that incorporated her initial three titles and her first appearance in the Top 20, Jankovic lost 10 matches consecutively.
The losing streak started soon after Jankovic lost her last three matches of 2005. Likewise, Bouchard lost her last three matches in 2014, at the WTA Finals in Singapore. We might not have considered them much at the time, with new years wiping the slates clean, yet each bloomed into something monstrous. Jankovic's plunge took on at 21, the same age as Bouchard.
The similitudes don't end there. Jankovic's low indicate was a misfortune 193rd-positioned Julia Vakulenko in Charleston; Bouchard's misfortune to 113th-positioned Tatjana Maria in the first round of Miami could be viewed as her nadir. The majority of their misfortunes were to players they were required to beat, the dominant part of which were positioned well outside the Top 20, with a couple even outside the Top 50.
Jankovic went so far as to concede that she considered stopping tennis. "At the point when [the losing streak] happened, it was extreme time for me. I don't care to lose," she said amid a question and answer session at the 2006 U.S. Open. "I don't think anyone likes to lose. However, for me, I'm a terrible washout sort of."
She continued stopping ceaselessly. Her hotly anticipated "achievement" at long last came in Rome, where, with her mom going hand in hand with her, she came to the quarterfinals. "My mom was not going with me, then she came to Rome," Jankovic said. "At that point from that point forward, I have an alternate feeling… It was such a change."
After Rome, Jankovic heaped together a 44-17 record, made her first Grand Slam elimination round appearance at the U.S. Open, and finished the year at No. 12. She was the world No. 1 under two years after the fact. The ability was dependably there, however now and then, for reasons that are difficult to clarify, that ability doesn't generally interpret into results.
Does Bouchard need her mother to go with her? No—however in any event, she ought to examine her group. Her guiding swap of Nick Saviano for Sam Sumyk toward the end of 2014 has been definitely not a smooth move; Chris Evert and numerous others have emphatically scrutinized the decision.
One thing we shouldn't question is Bouchard's adoration for the amusement. "I'm going to play regardless, regardless of the possibility that I'm on one leg," said Bouchard after her retirement on Wednesday. That doesn't sound like a player who's prepared to quit after an extreme stretch.
It's enticing to despise on Bouchard after her numerous head-scratching misfortunes, questionable Fed Cup conduct, commitment to off-court spotlight and obvious longing to have no companions on visit. In any case, its all the more enticing to foresee that the world No. 12 will in the long run rediscover her diversion, as Jankovic did. A player of her bore doesn't simply overlook how to win inconclusively.
"Each time you come up short you need to lift yourself up and continue onward," Bouchard said after her misfortune to Kristina Mladenovic in Birmingham. "That is the thing that I've been doing in the past couple months, yet's regardless it been going on. So regardless I have to continue going and have the conviction that it'll piv
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