Tennis star Eugenie Bouchard has landed a new television role less than a year after walking away from the sport. Back in September, Bouchard failed to qualify for the US Open after being beaten in qualifying by Dayana Yastremska, and duly announced her decision to scale back her playing commitments at the age of 29.

The Canadian then confirmed she had joined the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA) tour for 2024, although has not officially retired from professional tennis amid a current world ranking of 522.

The racket sport, where two or four players hit a perforated, hollow plastic ball with paddles, is deemed to be less demanding on the body than tennis.

But the former Wimbledon finalist has now stepped into the punditry chair. She announced the news on X on Tuesday, where she has built up a following of more than 1.5million fans.

“Guys, I’m on @TenicChannel this whole week!” she wrote. “Catch me at 12pm PT/3pm ET on the Tennis Channel live every day. And calling matches from 9am PT/12 pm ET.”

The online station has come renowned for live streaming tournament matches on both the ATP and WTA tour. This week alone, events in Halle, London, Berlin and Birmingham are all being covered, with Bouchard’s first task to provide expert opinion on the Grass Court Championships in Germany.

After she exploded onto the scene in 2014, few would have envisaged Bouchard being in the sport in a non-playing role by the time she was 30. That year, she became the first Canadian player to reach a Wimbledon final, beaten at SW19 by Petra Kvitova.

She also reached the semi-finals of both the Australian and French Open tournaments, and was elevated to a career high ranking of world No.5. During that season, she also landed what proved to be her only ATP title in Germany.

However, she would never again scale those heights, and endured a string of injury problems before eventually dropping out of the world’s top 500. She was also criticised for the perception she allowed lucrative endorsements and off-court commitments to derail her focus.

Bouchard has already begun her new role, offering analysis on Naomi Osaka after she was beaten by Qinwen Zheng in Berlin. “I’m sure Naomi would have wanted to do better so far in her comeback,” she said.

“She believes in herself and has high expectations. But it’s also tough when you’ve been away from the game such a long time. Everyone else is improving and if you’re not here, you’re declining until you get back on the tour.”