Bouchard feels 'vindicated' by lawsuit outcome

Former world number five Eugenie Bouchard said Saturday she felt "happy, relieved and vindicated" after a jury found the US Tennis Association mostly liable for her fall at the US Open in 2015. "After 2.5 years my lawsuit against the USTA is finally over," Bouchard said in a statement posted on Twitter, a day after reaching a settlement with the organization that runs the US Open. "The jury found the USTA negligent and liable for the accident. After the verdict, the USTA and I came to a settlement agreement." Financial terms of the settlement reached on Friday -- one day after the jury found the USTA bore 75 percent of the responsibility for Bouchard's fall -- were not disclosed. Bouchard, 23, had sought unspecified damages, arguing the USTA was at fault for unsafe conditions in a training room in the locker room area at the US Open, where Bouchard slipped and fell on a wet floor after a late night doubles match. She suffered a concussion and withdrew from the tournament as well as competitions in China and Japan later that year. Her lawyer Benedict Morelli told jurors that the accident sent Bouchard, now ranked 116th in the world, into "a downward spiral that she has not been able to recover from". In her statement, Bouchard thanked Morelli and her other lawyers for their hard work and support "throughout every step of this ordeal". The Canadian, who remains a popular social media presence with more than a million Instagram followers, also thanked her friends, family and fans.