US Open pics: Bouchard and Pliskova

NEW YORK – We rarely keep track of the score in practice sets. The hope is that players might actually be working on tactical things, and not concerning themselves about the scoreboard.

(That doesn’t happen in the few days before a Grand Slam, of course. They’re just playing. Or, you know, every often. But hope springs eternal).

But we’ll note here that Canadian Eugenie Bouchard had her way with Karolina Pliskova during a 45-minute hit Saturday at the US Open.

Every little bit of confidence helps, right? Bouchard – even when she was winning a lot of actual tennis matches – rarely came out on the good end of practice sets against other players.

The practice might have been better attended except for the fact that it was nowhere to be found on the posted practice schedule. Still, some fans found it.

And Bouchard was more in demand for autographs then the top-ranked player in the world afterwards. That’s the bizarre world she inhabits, still, even as her ranking dropped two spots to No. 76 on Sunday.

She sits between Veronica Cepede Royg of Paraguay and Francesca Schiavone, for whom this is likely to be the final US Open.

Here’s what they looked like out on a back court, with the workers taking down all the banners from the just completed Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day activities as they hit.