French Open 2014: Eugenie Bouchard stops idol worship as she prepares to fight Maria Sharapova

 
Respect: Eugenie Bouchard admired Sharapova from a young age
4 June 2014

One of Eugenie Bouchard’s prized possessions is a picture of her with Maria Sharapova and now she will battle her idol for a place in the French Open Final.

The 20-year-old Canadian had her picture taken with the Russian in Miami when she had just started playing the sport and since bursting onto the scene last year Bouchard has been called the “next Sharapova”.

However, the current version is not ready to give up her position and the 27-year-old is in her fourth successive French semi-final, highlighting the challenge now facing Bouchard.

The 18th seed, who reached the semi-final at the Australian Open, said: “To be seen as the next of someone who has won four Grand Slams and has been No1 in the world is a compliment.

“I remember watching her in the finals of Wimbledon and thought what she was doing was so cool and I wanted to do the same thing when I was seven or eight.

“She was a source of inspiration for me at the time.

“I respect her but now we’re in the semis of a Grand Slam, I am not going to put her too high on a pedestal. I will really just battle.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in