Eugenie Bouchard suing Queens Tennis Center over concussion

The suit, filed in United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York said the fall had been induced by “a slippery, foreign and unsafe substance on the floor”.

Tennis player Eugenie Bouchard was forced to withdraw from the U.S. Open after falling in the locker room and hitting her head, and she reportedly filed a lawsuit Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, as a result.

The 21-year-old Bouchard had just won a match against Dominika Cibulkova when she returned to the locker room at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre in Queens shortly after 10pm. She claims the organization didn’t keep the locker room in a “safe and suitable condition” because the organization failed to maintain, clean and fix the floor, which led to her fall. The substance involved is not specified in the case papers.

The lawsuit adds that Bouchard sustained a “severe injury to her head, including, but not limited to, a concussion”, and that the injury also caused her to withdraw or retire from the subsequent Japan Open, Wuhan Open, China Open and Hong Kong Open tournaments, resulting in a fall of 13 ranking places.

The defendants are being charged with two counts of negligence (one against the USTA, the other against the USTA National Tennis Center Inc.). It seeks unspecified damages.

Bouchard is Canada’s biggest women’s tennis star and was ranked 25th in the world prior to the September 4 incident.

USTA spokesperson Chris Widmaier declined to comment, claiming the organisation had a longstanding policy of not discussing ongoing litigation.