Concussed Bouchard withdraws

Eugenie Bouchard literally has been knocked out of the U.S. Open, the victim of a concussion suffered in a locker-room spill late Friday night.

Just hours before she was to play Italy’s Roberta Vinci in a fourth-round match late Sunday, Bouchard, the top-ranked Canadian woman, made official her exit from singles play. She already had withdrawn from scheduled Saturday matches in mixed doubles, partnered with Australia’s Nick Kyrgios, and in doubles with Russia’s Elena Vesnina.

Bouchard delayed her decision on continuing singles play for a day, but her persistent migraine headaches, sensitivity to light, sore neck and dizziness forced her to cancel two attempts to practise on Sunday.

Bouchard’s representatives said that, after her Friday singles match, she had slipped in a dark training room on her way to an ice bath and struck her head and elbow.

Bouchard had been making headway in her struggles this year to recover her breakthrough major-tournament successes last year.

Only 20 in 2014, she advanced to the Australian semifinals, French Open semis and Wimbledon final before reaching the fourth round at the U.S. Open. But in 2015, her match record is a fairly meek 12-17. After a quarterfinal loss in Australia, she was beaten in the first round at the French and Wimbledon.

A summer abdominal strain added to her problems, but she came to New York with a surprising new consultant, former champ Jimmy Connors, and talked of revived confidence and a better feel for handling expectations.

“The fact that he truly believes in me,” Bouchard said of Connors early in the tournament, “reminded me that, ‘Hey, I need to believe in myself as well.’ ”

She had tumbled from a 2014 year-end ranking of No. 7 down to 25th.