Genie Bouchard

Meet Novak Djokovic… And Have A Digital NFT To Remember It Forever At The World Tennis League In Dubai

December 19, 2022 by tennisbloggers Leave a Comment

Tennis fans will have the opportunity to purchase one-of-a-kind signed memorabilia, experience unprecedented event access and meet and greets with some of the biggest stars in tennis, including Novak Djokovic and Iga Swiatek, and have it all documented and preserved as a NFT via the Akshaya marketplace at the new World Tennis League this week in Dubai.

Akshaya, the world’s first unified NFT and Metaverse “Phygital” (physical and digital) marketplace, has partnered with the World Tennis League to introduce its “SportsVerse” where tennis fans will be able to purchase official World Tennis League (WTL) team jersey’s signed by team members along with a 3D digital NFT that is authenticated and certified and stored in blockchain. Through an experiential NFT for sale, fans will be able to have an opportunity to have meet and greets behind-the-scenes in the WTL team environment that includes photos, videos and autographs that is captured and saved as a 3D digital NFT.

All purchasing opportunities can be found at www.akshaya.io

“This is an exciting and very unique opportunity to take advantage of our physical, experiential and digital experiences offerings at the historic and inaugural World Tennis League in Dubai,” said Ganesh Raju, CEO of Akshaya. “Having an exclusive behind-the-scenes in-person meeting with some of the greatest tennis stars of all time is an unforgettable experience that will be forever preserved as an NFT. For those not in Dubai, having a physical and digital autographed collectible is your way to be a part of this historic World Tennis League event.”

The World Tennis League (WTL) is a first-year mixed-gender team event that will be played December 19-24 at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai. The event features four teams – Falcons, Eagles, Kites and Hawks – featuring 18 of the best ATP and WTA Tour players, including Djokovic and Swiatek, as well other top stars Nick Kyrgios, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Caroline Garcia, Elena Rybakina, Alexander Zverev, Paula Badosa among others.

Each match features men’s singles, women’s singles and mixed doubles two-set matches with a decisive match tiebreaker in a best-of-three series. The World Tennis League will not only showcase many of the best men and women players in the world, but will also feature some of the top music entertainers with post-match concerts featuring top global artists including Dutch DJ superstars, Tiësto and Armin Van Buuren.

Each team is as follows:

Eagles: Nick Kyrgios, Caroline Garcia, Rohan Bopanna, Bianca Andreescu, Andres Seppi

Falcons: Novak Djokovic, Aryna Sabalenka, Grigor Dimitrov, Paula Badosa

Hawks: Alexander Zverev, Elena Rybakina, Dominic Thiem, Anett Kontaveit

Kites: Felix Auger-Aliassime, Iga Swiatek, Holger Rune, Sania Mirza, Genie Bouchard

For more information on the World Tennis League, go to www.WorldTennisLeague.com

NFT, Metaverse and Blockchain Web3 Technologies have shaken up the industry by providing a fantastic avenue for content creators, artists, sports personalities and influencers through sales and royalties. In the last year, the NFT market size grew to be $41 billion and is estimated to grow to $80 billion by next year with the Metaverse to be over $1 trillion in the next two years.

About Akshaya.io:
Akshaya.io is India’s first-ever platform that brings Metaverse, NFT, and Digital Twin together to enable users claim ownership of physical and digital assets with certified proof of authenticity. From those interested in dealing with unique collectibles to rare artifacts, Akshaya.io will be a healthy community of highly astute customers. Since its inception, Akshaya.io has created excitement among companies trading in jewelry, boutique furniture, artifacts, sports, entertainment, and other sectors, and is all set to sign many prominent brands, enterprises, and a few celebrities as partners. Akshaya.io will be the first ever platform to provide the best experience of physical and experiential shopping in the virtual world. This is the only platform which will enable customers to experience and own both digital and physical variants of any and every asset. Akshaya.io has to date invested USD 10 million, through internal accruals from founder and seed investors, to build a robust technology platform that is all set to provide a unique experience to its partners and customers. The money invested has gone in to develop the backend software and to strengthen Network across India. Currently, Akshaya.io has physical offices across 45 cities in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal, and has developed strong connect with prospective partners. Partners will create or add their NFTs to Akshaya.io platform to be sold or traded.

Novak Djokovic World Tennis League track suit you can get personally autographed and as a NFT and have him personally give it to you in Dubai

Genie Bouchard Headlines Champions Series Tennis at The Greenbrier

July 31, 2022 by tennisbloggers Leave a Comment

Genie Bouchard, Jack Sock, Leylah Fernandez and Sam Querrey make up the four-player field at the 2022 Greenbrier Champions Tennis Classic at Center Court at Creekside Stadium on September 24 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

A women’s singles match, men’s singles match and a mixed doubles match make up the action at this unique, intimate event, hosted by Champions Series Tennis.

“We started this event in 2012, hoping to bring tennis back as a showcase sport at The Greenbrier, and we’ve had some of the top players to ever play the sport play on our courts,” said Dr. Jill Justice, President, The Greenbrier. “It’s extremely exciting to know we’ve kept this event going for a decade and continue to bring an entertaining product to tennis enthusiasts from around the area.”

The action begins with men’s singles at 2 p.m., pitting Sock against Querrey. The two have met only once before, with Sock coming out on top in Houston in 2015. That exciting men’s match will be followed by a women’s showcase, with Fernandez and Bouchard going head-to-head at approximately 3 p.m. The final match of the day, scheduled to begin around 4 p.m., is a mixed doubles match featuring Bouchard and Querrey teaming up against Fernandez and Sock.

Tickets can be purchased online by visiting Greenbrier.com/TennisClassic. Courtside seats are $100, Lower Level seats $75, Upper Level seats $35 and children 12-and-under are $10. VIP experiences — including opportunities to play with the pros, a player party and a backstage experience — are also available to enhance your visit to The Greenbrier Champions Tennis Classic. They can be purchased at www.championsseriestennis.com.

Sock is a 29-year-old American player, who has won four career ATP single titles and 15 doubles titles. He’s been ranked as high as No. 8 in the world in singles and No. 2 in doubles. He won Wimbledon doubles titles in 2014 and 2018 and a U.S. Open doubles title in 2018. He won a gold medal (mixed doubles) and bronze medal (doubles) at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Bouchard is a 28-year-old Canadian player, who has been ranked as high as No. 5 in the world in singles, becoming the first Canadian to reach the top 5. She reached the finals at Wimbledon in 2014 and has reached the semifinals at both the French Open and Australian Open.

Querrey is a 34-year-old American player who has won 10 career ATP singles titles and been ranked as high as No. 11 in the world. He reached the Wimbledon semifinals in 2017 after knocking off No. 1 Andy Murray. He became the first American to reach a Grand Slam semifinal in 8 years.

Fernandez is a 19-year-old Canadian player currently ranked No. 20 in the world. The left-hander has won two career singles titles and reached the finals of the U.S. Open in 2021. She received the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award by the Canadian Press as its choice for top Canadian female athlete that same year.

Built in 2015, Center Court at Creekside Stadium takes advantage of its unique Creekside location, featuring expansive views of Howard’s Creek, the iconic Old White golf course and the picturesque mountains beyond, while offering as many as 2,600 spectators an engaging viewing experience.

About The Greenbrier

The Greenbrier is a distinct and spectacular luxury mountain resort situated in the Allegheny Mountains in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. It is best known as “America’s Resort” and is synonymous with world-class, authentic, southern hospitality. The Greenbrier experience began in 1778 and offers a luxurious respite to discerning guests from around the world. The grand scale architecture, Dorothy Draper décor, immaculate attention to detail and legendary gracious service set The Greenbrier apart from all others. Guests walk in the footsteps of presidents, celebrities and generations of families who regard The Greenbrier as a “one of one” destination. The 710 perfectly appointed Signature Resort Rooms, Classic and Historic Suites, Legacy Cottages and Estate Homes are situated on The Greenbrier’s breathtaking 11,000-acre playground. Play championship golf courses or experience more than 55 activities, including professional indoor and outdoor tennis, off-road driving and falconry. America’s only private casino features table games, slot machines and the FanDuel Sportsbook. The Greenbrier’s full-service, 40,000-square-foot world-renowned spa is widely recognized as one of the most luxurious mineral spas in the world, and the Retail Collection is comprised of more than 35 boutiques, shops and hand-crafted works of art. In addition to The Main Dining Room, The Greenbrier Restaurant Collection is comprised of 19 restaurants, cafés and lounges, featuring traditional, award–winning southern-inspired cuisine. The Greenbrier Clinic has been practicing diagnostic medicine since 1948. The Greenbrier Sporting Club and The Greenbrier Legacy Club offer the pinnacle of luxury real estate with exclusive home sites within distinctive neighborhoods across The Greenbrier estate. Follow The Greenbrier on Facebook at The Greenbrier, on Twitter at @the_greenbrier or on Instagram at the_greenbrier.

About InsideOut Sports + Entertainment

InsideOut Sports + Entertainment is a Los Angeles based producer of proprietary events and promotions founded in 2004 by former world No. 1 and Hall of Fame tennis player Jim Courier and former SFX and Clear Channel executive Jon Venison. In 2005, InsideOut launched its signature property, the Champions Series, a collection of tournaments featuring the greatest names in tennis over the age of 30. In addition, InsideOut produces many other successful events including “Legendary Night” exhibitions, The World Series of Beach Volleyball and numerous corporate outings. Since inception, InsideOut Sports + Entertainment has raised over $5 million for charity. In 2014, InsideOut Sports + Entertainment merged with Horizon Media, the largest privately held media services agency in the world. For more information, please log on to www.InsideOutSE.com or InvescoSeries.com or follow on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Genie Bouchard Stars In Winning Debut Champions Series Tennis Mixed Team Event Title With Tommy Haas

March 6, 2022 by tennisbloggers Leave a Comment

Genie Bouchard registered wins in singles and mixed doubles to lead her and partner Tommy Haas to victory at the SoCal Honda Dealers Helpful Cup at the Sherwood Country Club, the first new mixed team event on the Champions Series Tennis tour.

The 28-year-old Bouchard, the Wimbledon runner-up in 2014, was competing in her first organized event in a year after undergoing right shoulder surgery, Bouchard surprised 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin 6-1 in singles before pairing with Haas to beat Kenin and Sam Querrey 6-3 in the decisive mixed doubles match.

“I feel like I’ve just been smiling all afternoon, like my cheeks hurt,” said Bouchard. “I’m just so happy to be back out here. It was so fun today.”

Bouchard last competed on the WTA Tour in March of 2021 at the WTA event in Monterrey, Mexico and underwent right shoulder surgery shortly thereafter. Playing with gusty winds and temperatures in the low 50s, Bouchard showed many of the same elements that allowed her to reach a career high ranking of No. 5 in her dominant victory.

“I played better than I expected,” Bouchard said after her win over Kenin. “We had really tough conditions. We’re both very cold out here and it’s hard to serve sometimes with the wind. But I just tried to hit the shots I’ve been doing in practice since I’ve been training for my comeback.”

Bouchard’s singles win came after Querrey defeated Haas 7-5 to give he and partner Kenin the early 1-0 lead.

“Genie carried me today in this new format, which was a lot of fun, I must say,” said Haas. “I tried to gain a point in the singles, came up short against Sam, but then Genie just played lights out today.”

With the victory, Bouchard and Haas split the first prize of $50,000 while Querrey and Kenin split the runner-up payout of $25,000.

Champions Series Tennis will also stage events in 2022 in Dallas, St. Louis, The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, Orlando and other sites to be announced. Full player fields and event dates will be announced in the near future.

ABOUT INSIDEOUT SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT

InsideOut Sports + Entertainment is a Los Angeles based producer of proprietary events and promotions founded in 2004 by former world No. 1 and Hall of Fame tennis player Jim Courier and former SFX and Clear Channel executive Jon Venison. In 2005, InsideOut launched its signature property, the Champions Series, a collection of tournaments featuring the greatest names in tennis over the age of 30. In addition, InsideOut produces many other successful events including “Legendary Night” exhibitions, The World Series of Beach Volleyball and numerous corporate outings. Since inception, InsideOut Sports + Entertainment has raised over $5 million for charity. In 2014, InsideOut Sports + Entertainment merged with Horizon Media, the largest privately held media services agency in the world. For more information, please log on to www.InsideOutSE.com or ChampionsSeriesTennis.com or follow on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

New Look Mixed Format Set For Champions Series Tennis

February 14, 2022 by Randy Walker Leave a Comment

The 2022 Champions Series Tennis circuit will kick off Saturday, March 5 with a new look mixed format featuring men’s and women’s legends competing throughout the year for prize money and the season-long points championship.

Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, and Eugenie Bouchard, the 2014 Wimbledon runner-up, will join former world No. 11 Sam Querrey and 2000 Olympic silver medalist and former world No. 2 Tommy Haas in the year’s opening event Saturday, March 5 at the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California. Querrey and Kenin will play as a team against Haas and Bouchard, each playing a set of singles and then pairing for a deciding mixed doubles match.

Each event will feature $75,000 in prize money with $50,000 going to the winning team and $25,000 to the runner-up. The winning team members will each be awarded 100 ranking points towards the season-long championship. Each player will also be awarded 100 ranking points for participating in the event and an additional 100 ranking points for each match victory.

“Through the years, the most frequent feedback we have received from our fans and sponsors is that they would love to see doubles and they also would love to see women play, so that led us to creating this new exciting format showcasing both,” said Jon Venison, Co-President of InsideOut Sports & Entertainment, the organization that founded and runs Champions Series Tennis.

For the Sherwood Country Club event, the event will start with “Play with the Pros” fan experiences from 10am to 12pm, followed by a “Player Party Experience” and a “Backstage Experience.” Querrey and Haas will kick off match play at 2 pm, followed by Kenin and Bouchard and concluding with the mixed doubles match. Champions Series Tennis began in 2005 and over the last 16 years has featured some of the greatest names in men’s tennis, including Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg, Jim Courier, Michael Chang among others. Courier won the first Champions Series Tennis event held in 2005 in Houston at the Westside Tennis Club.

ABOUT INSIDEOUT SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT InsideOut Sports + Entertainment is a Los Angeles based producer of proprietary events and promotions founded in 2004 by former world No. 1 and Hall of Fame tennis player Jim Courier and former SFX and Clear Channel executive Jon Venison. In 2005, InsideOut launched its signature property, the Champions Series, a collection of tournaments featuring the greatest names in tennis over the age of 30. In addition, InsideOut produces many other successful events including “Legendary Night” exhibitions, The World Series of Beach Volleyball and numerous corporate outings. Since inception, InsideOut Sports + Entertainment has raised over $5 million for charity. In 2014, InsideOut Sports + Entertainment merged with Horizon Media, the largest privately held media services agency in the world. For more information, please log on to www.InsideOutSE.com or ChampionsSeriesTennis.com or follow on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Has Genie Bouchard’s Magic Run Out at Only 24?

July 25, 2018 by tennisbloggers

by Bob Stockton

Eugenie Bouchard’s Swiss Open came to a premature end when injury meant she had to retire from her semi-final match against Alize Cornet. Bouchard had lost the opening set but couldn’t carry on in the second where she was trailing 1-0 after a groin injury forced her off the court. It was the furthest Bouchard had got in any tournament over the last 18 months so there will be feelings of hope but also disappointment from her fans.

After the turbulent few years Bouchard has had, winning the Swiss Open would have done her the world of good. Her withdrawal from the event is another let down in a career that has been blighted by disappointment over recent years. Looking at Bouchard’s career it’s hard to say whether she still has the desire to get to the top after she promised so much early on.

The world looked at her feet after she made it through to the Wimbledon final in 2014 at the age of twenty and despite being thrashed by Petra Kvitova in 55 minutes there was still reason to be positive about the future. The next few years would see her tumble down the rankings from fifth in the world in 2014 to 123rd as of July 2018.
Her young career hasn’t been without controversy either after a fall in a locker room during the 2015 US Open led to her suffering from a concussion and missing the rest of the season. Bouchard took the USTA to court and sued for missed earnings over that time and a jury apportioned 75% of the blame to the USTA meaning Bouchard earned a multimillion-dollar payout.

Rather tellingly Bouchard has requested that her social media posts be kept out the trial as they ‘painted a misleadingly sunny portrait of her life since the injury.’ The request was denied by the judge but in many ways, it does sum up the contentious issue hovering over Bouchard’s career.

Bouchard is somewhat of an Instagram star as she provides daily updates to the 1.7 million followers she has of her lavish lifestyle and that has fans questioning how focused she is on winning. On the way back from the Swiss Open she posted pictures onboard a private plane drinking prosecco and some will be wondering what there was to toast after another tournament of not making a final or winning. You couldn’t imagine the true champions of the sport like Serena Williams, Roger Federer or Rafa Nadal taking any delight whatsoever in that sort of outcome.

Could it be that Bouchard has found the extra gear that has been missing and feels that she is good enough to climb towards the top of the women’s game again? Time will tell but there wouldn’t be a better place to make a statement then the US Open in August. Many would have written Bouchard off and at 150/1 in tennis betting to win the US Open it’s easy to see why but at only 24 she still has a lot left to give and has proved in the past that she is more than capable of mixing it with the very best.

Of late Bouchard has turned in mediocre performance after mediocre performance but has still earned $234,353 on tour this year which makes up part of her on-court career earnings of $5,950,874. You don’t have to be a critical thinker to match the dots up quite easily when wondering where Bouchard’s lack of desire may be coming from after assessing her financial returns so far.

Bouchard’s magic hasn’t run out but it looks like she isn’t willing to give as much of it in the pursuit to get to the top again. Genie is obviously a very talented tennis player but until she commits herself completely to the cause again she will keep rubbing tennis fans up the wrong way.

Photos: Australian Open January 11, 2013 with Bouchard, Falconi, Sanchez

January 11, 2013 by tennisbloggers

Our esteemed tennis photographer is currently at Melbourne Park and will be providing daily tennis galleries from the 2013 Australian Open. Make sure to check back each day for a new gallery and don’t miss the fun from down under!
January 11, 2013 — Tennis Grandstand photographer is back and today’s featured gallery includes North American and European sensations from the WTA Tour: Genie Bouchard, Irina Falconi, Maria Sanchez and Irena Pavlovic.
[nggallery id=73]