How hot is it in Perth?
Hot enough for Genie Bouchard to put on a ballcap (and a relatively substantial amount of practice kit) to train with coach Harold Solomon and hitting partner Robbye Poole in the tough conditions Tuesday.
You don’t see Bouchard wearing a cap often (or most of the women, for that matter). Unless it’s off court, as a style thing.
Bouchard will take the court again on Wednesday at the Hopman Cup when Canada faces Germany.
The 23-year-old lost 6-1, 6-4 to Australia’s Daria Gavrilova in her opening match on Sunday. After a terrible start, she picked up her level a little bit. But the overall effort wasn’t a whole lot different from the way she struggled through matches during the 2017 season.
Partner Vasek Pospisil will have to go up against Alexander Zverev, who lost his Hopman Cup opener to the clearly in-form David Goffin.
Winning record against Kerber
Overall, Bouchard is 4-2 against the former No. 1. Three of the wins have come on red clay. And two of them came during her breakthrough 2014 season – at the French Open and Wimbledon.
The latest victory came last May in Madrid during Bouchard’s finest week of 2017. It was the week she also defeated Maria Sharapova.
Kerber retired, down 3-6, 0-5 in that Madrid match.
Here’s what Bouchard looked like on Tuesday (Photos courtesy of Steven Domagala).
When she and Pospisil got to the beach for a little photo op later, of course, all caution was thrown to the wind.
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