Genie Bouchard gets Indian Wells wild card

INDIAN WELLS – The men’s and women’s singles wild cards for the BNP Paribas Open were announced Saturday afternoon.

And Canadian Genie Bouchard is one of the lucky recipients.

Bouchard, currently ranked No. 115 and seemingly relegated to the qualifying at this Premier Mandatory event for the first time since 2013, will receive one of the eight wild cards available to the women.

She will be out of luck in doubles, though.

Still, it’s a nice break, as long as the 24-year-old takes advantage of it.

Men’s singles wild cards

*Tennys Sandgren (USA)
*Ernesto Escobedo (USA)
*Bradley Klahn (2nd place Oracle Challenger finisher)
*Reilly Opelka (3rd place Oracle Challenger finisher)
*Alex de Minaur (AUS)

Women’s singles wild cards

*Victoria Azarenka (BLR)
*Genie Bouchard (CAN)
*Caroline Dolehide (USA)
*Claire Liu (USA)
*Kayla Day (USA)
*Danielle Collins (Oracle Challenger 1st place)
*Amanda Anisimova (Oracle Challenger 2nd place)
*Sofya Zhuk (RUS)

Roberta Vinci and Sabine Lisicki are among those who received qualifying wild cards. Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis is another on the men’s side.

Little match play for Bouchard

The Canadian was entered in this week’s Oracle Challenger, a WTA $125K event that would at least have given her a match – or more – going into the BNP Paribas Open.

But with her trial ending only Friday in New York (and the end date being unpredictable), she withdrew from it.

Under normal circumstances, with her ranking, she would have played the qualifying here in Monday and Tuesday.

And it is a strong field. Given Bouchard hasn’t even played a match since early February in Taipei, where she lost in the quarterfinals 6-4, 6-0 to Yafan Wang, to come straight into a big event with a potential first-round opponent barely out of the top 30, is a challenge.