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Since she burst on the tennis scene, Genie Bouchard has been the golden girl. Talented, self-possessed, attractive. It seemed that she could do no wrong.

Then she was pulverized by Petra Kvitova during the Wimbledon final and it seems that it has been mostly downhill since. The crowning touch (or perhaps the touch that knocked the tarnished crown off her head) came in the lead-up to Saturday’s Fed Cup match against 69th-ranked Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru. In the draw ceremony the day before the match, all Bouchard had to do was to shake Dulgheru’s hand.

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Dulgheru put her hand out. Bouchard refused to shake. Dulgheru left her hand dangling there for a moment, then withdrew, looking embarrassed. But she wasn’t the one who should be embarrassed.

“It wasn’t personal,” Bouchard explained after the refusal. “I just don’t believe in wishing my opponent good luck before a match.”

Like it or not, Bouchard came across as a churlish snob. Given that she had done the same thing before, Tennis Canada shares the blame for lacking the backbone to step in and tell her in no uncertain terms that such behaviour isn’t acceptable in international play, where she is representing all Canadians.