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Eugenie Bouchard Hires New Coach! Recent Slump Blamed On Ex-Coach Sumyk?

| Aug 08, 2015 10:02 PM EDT

Eugenie Bouchard

Canadian tennis sensation Eugenie Bouchard recently had a string of losses which resulted in the exit of Sam Sumyk after only six months.

Eugenie Bouchard recently fired her coach Sam Sumyk after the Canadian tennis player's string of losses and early exits.

The report from the Montreal Gazzette credited sports journalist Matt Cronin for breaking the news on Twitter. The 21-year old Bouchard cut ties with longtime trainer Nick Saviano and hired Sumyk last February.

After the Canadian sweetheart's meteoric rise in 2014 which saw her make the semifinals at the French and Australian Open tournaments and even to the finals of Wimbledon, she hit a bad slump. With Sumyk, her record was only 4 wins and 17 losses.

A month ago, after her first round exit at Wimbledon last June 30, Bouchard shared some ominous statements to Tennis.com when she was asked about a possible shake-up of her team:

"Maybe I should," she said candidly. "Yes, we've definitely not started well at all. But I believe in him (Sumyk) and he believes in me. As of right now, it's still the plan. But there definitely has to be some improvement, some changes, because I expect to do a little better than this."

However, she did not entirely place the blame on her coach as she revealed she was nursing an abdominal injury which caused her to withdraw from Eastbourne.

"Well, after Eastbourne we did testing and I have a grade two tear in my ab," she reveals. "Probably wouldn't have been smart to play here, but I couldn't pass on Wimbledon. So I did kind of minimal preparation to save myself for the match."

The latest update on this situation as of Aug. 7 was that she has hired Marko Dragic to coach her at the Rogers Cup, based on the latest report of Tennis.com. She hopes that Dragic can help her rise again from her no. 26 WTA ranking.

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