Eugenie Bouchard makes final preparations for her Indian Wells debut Saturday night

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – Genie Bouchard hasn't been a big presence during these opening days of the BNP Paribas Open.

Most of her practicing, we must assume, has been done off-site. Some of the players are getting their hits in at the nearby La Quinta resort; Milos Raonic was there Friday afternoon instead of his scheduled court at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, for example.

But she was on court Friday morning practicing with Alizé Cornet of France.

Here's what it looked like.

Two things stood out, in Eh Game's first look at Bouchard's game since Australia.

The first thing was that the "Genie Grimace", that look familiar to Bouchard fans that her face takes on when hits the ball, was visibly reduced.

It still happened, but not nearly as often. Whether that was a conscious effort, or merely the result of the fact that she might not have been putting 100 per cent force behind every ball, is a question that can only be answered with time.

The other noticeable change is that her service motion, which had been disintegrating into a bit of a mess over the second half of the season as her confidence waned, has been tweaked with the arrival of new coach Sam Sumyk.

That was an hour at 11 a.m. Bouchard had another hour scheduled at 2 p.m. But this was the scene (on the same "lucky" Court 13).

Before anyone jumps to any conclusions, it's entirely possible she practice off-site, as Milos Raonic did later in the afternoon.

Instead of practically falling over and into the court, with the toss a little bit behind her, as it had been, Bouchard's motion during this session was a lot more straight up and down, with much better balance as she landed. That's a good sign.

The serve reminded us of Ana Ivanovic's serve - the good serves, those serves when Ivanovic's toss is in the right place. (Admittedly that isn't all that often).

The tape on Bouchard's right forearm confirmed the information we had that this was indeed the tender area.

Bouchard will play the second match on Saturday night.