Tag Archives: wimbledon

Genie and her Canadian Army

Our first-ever tennis article here at PITH was almost two years ago to the day, about Eugenie Bouchard becoming the first Canadian to win the Wimbledon Girls Championship.

Eugenie Bouchard is a typical 20-year-old gal -- she tweets, Facebooks, dances Gangnam Style on the Great Wall of China, and wins millions on the tennis court. Selfie from GB's own Instagram account.
Eugenie Bouchard is a typical 20-year-old gal — she tweets, Facebooks, dances Gangnam Style on the Great Wall of China, and wins millions on the tennis court. Selfie from GB’s own Instagram account.

North Van’s Filip Peliwo also brought home the boys’ trophy that year, but no one remembers because he’s not a remarkably photogenic blonde woman who has reached the final eight in three consecutive Grand Slam tournaments. This Bouchard gal, on the other hand, is entirely memorable. She may have lost the Wimbledon final, but the Montrealer was by far the biggest story on the women’s side. Her sense of humour is winning as many fans as her rapidly improving on-court arsenal, with everyone from TV nerd Jim Parsons to tennis legend Chris Evert admitting to being a part of Genie’s Army. She can fricking hit the ball, yo.

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Canadians have it pretty good

Fred Perry is the last British-born tennis player to win Wimbledon. Check out the pants!

If you think it’s been a long time since a Canadian team hoisted the Stanley Cup, try being a British tennis fan.

In case you’re counting, the last time the Cup was won by a team north of the 49th parallel was in 1993, when Patrick Roy’s Montreal Canadiens beat Gretzky and the LA Kings in five games. A lot of people consider the Stanley Cup, and even hockey as a game, to be incontrovertibly Canadian, but since the Habs won 19 years ago, every championship series has gone to a US-based team. The Ottawa Senators, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers and the Vancouver Canucks (twice) have appeared in finals since then, but northern fans have gone into the summer empty-handed and broken-hearted each time.

So, wah. The Brits haven’t celebrated a hometown men’s singles hero on Centre Court since the Great Frickin’ Depression. How long ago was that? Players wore PANTS during matches.

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