"If you ask me to twirl, ask the guys to flex their guns" – When Eugenie Bouchard spoke about her infamous twirling incident at 2015 Australian Open

Eugenie Bouchard was involved in a controversial incident at the 2015 Australian Open when an interviewer asked the then 20-year-old to twirl after she won her second-round match against Kiki Bertens.

While Bouchard obliged the request at the time, reflecting on the incident in a 2019 interview, she revealed that the situation escalated after it was perceived as sexist and the Canadian tennis player echoed that standpoint.

She suggested that if female athletes are made such uncomfortable requests, then so should the male athletes.

“It was right after I won the match and, you know, there’s a whole crowd and I was being interviewed. So, in the moment I was like, I felt awkward, but I was like, ‘Sure!’ and I did a little spin. Then I get off the court and I check my phone and people are going crazy because people are basically saying, ‘Well, they would never ask a male athlete to do that’,” she recalled.

“It took on this life of its own, and even today when there’s topics about you know, the difference of male and female in sports, it’s always referenced as such a kind of sexist question. And so, I was like, ‘Well, if you ask me to twirl then you’ve got to ask the guys to like, you know, flex their guns or you know, show something off as well because you know, a guy would not be asked that,” she added.

Eugenie Bouchard further disclosed that her dilemma at the time stemmed from the fact that she was thrilled with her outfit, but the way of questioning was inappropriate.

“In the moment it’s hard to kind of realize what’s happening, but looking back, I mean I thought I was wearing a cute outfit okay, so I was happy to show it off. But the difference of questions geared towards male and female athletes, there’s definitely this difference,” she observed.

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"Why aren’t you playing tennis?" – Eugenie Bouchard on facing social media scrutiny

Eugenie Bouchard reached the semifinals of the Australian Open and French Open, and the final of Wimbledon in 2014.

In the same interview from 2019, Eugenie Bouchard, who rose to fame after her stellar performances in 2014, revealed about dealing with social media scrutiny.

The Canadian said that she felt pressure from her followers when they would criticize her for making posts that were not related to tennis but showed her personal life outside of it.

“I feel this pressure, I’ll post something non tennis related and then, boom! All the comments are like, ‘Get on the court,’ ‘Go practice,’ ‘Why aren’t you playing tennis?’ as if I am supposed to be playing tennis like 24/7. And for me, I do so many different and cool things in my life. I travel around the world and I love to show like, my life aspect of it, my personal experiences with what I do,” she said.

“To me, being on the court is my job – I love it, but I do it every single day, so to me it’s not like an exciting thing to post,” she added.