EASTBOURNE, England -- It's almost two years since Eugenie Bouchard produced the highlight of her career so far by making it to the Wimbledon final, but her memories of that success have been scarred.
The optimism in the Canadian's outlook has not been extinguished by her experiences in 2015 or the recent, and freshly-denied, claims of an eating disorder. But they have left her sounding more like a world-weary veteran than a still-highly-marketable 22-year-old who had the tennis world at her feet.
"What I learned the most last year was to look out for myself and do what's best for me; not worry about what people think or say," said Bouchard, who ended the 2014 season ranked world No.7 after reaching a high of 5.
She finished last year down the WTA list at 48, where she was this week. "I was living with a lot of pressure and expectations," she said. "It was hard to not be concerned by what people were thinking because I heard it so much.
"My team try to help me as much as possible, but I felt I maybe didn't get the best guidance last year so, no matter what, I have to do what's best for me and trust my instincts."
Wary, as well as weary, Bouchard didn't elaborate on who it was giving her advice that wasn't 'the best' during her interview with ESPN at the Aegon International this week. The management company she is newly associated with, Las Vegas-listed PRP, didn't clarify, either, when contacted.
When asked to offer some pointers for other budding young stars, Bouchard added: "I wouldn't do something because of what other people think. I wouldn't allow outside people to change how I think, or my schedule or anything like that.
"You have to have a good team around you and a plan. Worry about that because your career will be over and no-one will care about you anyway. So you might as well just look after you."
Most of the people associated with Bouchard as she slipped spectacularly down the rankings last year are no longer around her.
Coach Sam Sumyk, who guided her game for much of 2015, has gone, as has her management arrangement with WME-IMG.
"You grow up really fast and that has helped me become tough," Bouchard said. "I have always been a tough cookie but I've done better since [last year]. It's through personal experiences."
The most recent difficult moment was last month at the French Open: Bouchard talked to the media about the manifestations of pre-match anxiety for her and her comments about food led to eating disorder headlines.
"I never said I had an eating disorder -- I don't have one and never have," she said. "That was something I was disappointed to see. I was describing how I would be nervous before matches and have trouble eating, which has happened to me since I was eight years old and playing tournaments.
"It definitely happened more frequently in 2015 but now I am less concerned about what people think. Now I worry about me and I can eat a lot."
Bouchard's peaks and troughs on the court have been well chronicled but are still a little shocking when recalled. In 2014, she made the semifinals of the first two Grand Slams, in Australia and France, before going one stage better at Wimbledon (losing to Petra Kvitova).
In 2015, the furthest Bouchard went in any of the majors was the quarterfinals in Australia and she went out of 12 tournaments before the third round.
There was more drama at the US open when she suffered concussion before a fourth-round match; a lawsuit against the USTA, which has still to be resolved, followed and Bouchard didn't complete another match that season.
This year has started better, the Miami Beach resident reaching her first quarterfinal in almost 12 months at the Shenzhen Open in January. She went on to make the final of the Hobart International the same month and repeated that feat at the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur in February.
The recovery has stalled since and Bouchard was eliminated in the third round at Eastbourne by Agnieszka Radwanska on Wednesday. But she insisted she had made progress and that she is a different prospect to last year as she heads for Wimbledon, her favourite tournament.
"It's my career and I want to be the best I can," said Bouchard, who has "father figure" coach Nick Saviano back in her corner. "It's finding myself, recentring and forgetting everything around me.
"I definitely felt a lot of pressure getting into 2015. I had a stretch of bad results but I'm over it and have learned those lessons. If I have bad moments I try to turn it around right away and not let it linger for weeks and weeks.
"I started 2016 with zero expectations and did better than I'd hoped at the beginning. In the past couple of weeks I had results I wasn't happy with [losing to lower-ranked opponents in 's-Hertogenbosch and Mallorca].
"But I've adopted a go-for-it attitude. Life is short and the career super short and I want to enjoy it. I took a step back and looked at the big picture: it's tennis, I love it -- it's a beautiful game -- so I want to enjoy it, go for it and not have any regrets."