"It's still tennis, it's still only a court," Eugenie Bouchard said when I asked her once if she had any advice for amateurs about how to play on grass.

You must not obsess over what's underfoot, last summer's Wimbledon runner-up told me: "You can't only be thinking about the surface." All very sensible.

And yet, the way that Bouchard has been playing during what has so far been a deeply frustrating year - whether on clay or hard courts, inside or out - she must be hoping that the change to grass is going to bring about a great transformation in her fortunes.

Bouchard, along with everyone who wishes her well (every foot soldier and field marshal of her fan club known as the Genie Army) will be hoping that this can be a new beginning for her. However, her defeat on her opening appearance at a grass-court tournament in Holland this week meant that she has lost nine of her last 10 matches, with just one victory since she left the hard courts of Indian Wells in March.

“ The other day, Sports Pro magazine put Bouchard at the top of their list of their most marketable athletes in the world.

It was on the grass last summer that Bouchard went deeper than ever before into a Grand Slam. Already a semi-finalist at last year's Australian and French Opens, she went all the way through the draw into the second Saturday of the Wimbledon Championships, where she was only stopped by a superb performance by Czech Petra Kvitova.

Perhaps this summer's grass-court swing will allow the 21-year-old, who this week dropped out of the top 10, to reboot and relaunch her season?

This year the grass-court season is longer than ever before, with three weeks, up from two, between the European Grand Slams, and Bouchard has taken advantage of the bigger stretch on the sport's original surface with three warm-up tournaments before Wimbledon.

She is due to compete in Birmingham at next week's Aegon Classic after taking a wild card. The following week, she is scheduled to play at the Aegon International in Eastbourne before travelling on to the All England Club.

For any young player, one of the most challenging periods of their careers is the season that follows their breakthrough year (think of it as tennis's equivalent of music's difficult second album syndrome).

More often than not, players have to recalibrate and reset, to learn how to deal with the additional attention and expectation.

For Bouchard, there have been even more changes to adjust to, as she has switched management companies and coaches. Nick Saviano had coached Bouchard from when she was 12-years-old until when she was playing in a Wimbledon final (and then until the conclusion of last season).

After that partnership ended, she turned to Sam Sumyk, who had been working with Victoria Azarenka. There has also been a switch in physical trainers.

The other day, Sports Pro magazine put Bouchard at the top of their list of their most marketable athletes in the world.

Predictably, there have been suggestions (unfounded) that she cares more about Instagram and red carpets than she does about hard graft.

"Hopefully the grass will be good to me," Bouchard said in Paris.

A strong Wimbledon would turn her year around.

Mark Hodgkinson is the author of 'Game, Set and Match: Secret Weapons of the World's Top Tennis Players' (Bloomsbury)