Eugenie Bouchard's first match in more than a month ends in victory at Indian Wells

INDIAN WELLS – After more than a month without a competitive match, with a forearm injury that was taped in practice, there was no way to truly predict how Genie Bouchard would perform in a night match on the big stadium court at Indian Wells where just 24 hours before, world No. 1 Serena Williams had made her emotional return.

But with some help from opponent Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic, after averting a potential crisis midway through the first set, the 21-year-old Canadian rolled to a 6-2, 6-2 victory that took just 57 minutes and set up an intriguing third-round clash with big-serving American Coco Vandeweghe.

Bouchard did her post-match interview in the mixed zone, which is a concept taken from the Olympics and used by the ATP Tour at some of its tournaments.

Because both tours are in action here in Indian Wells, the WTA used the opportunity of a late-night match to go that route rather than the usual tennis route of waiting an hour or more for the player to cool down, shower, blow-dry, lip gloss and come into the interview room calm, cool, collected and with the match already in the rear-view mirror

On this occasion, Bouchard hopped off the golf cart that took her directly from the stadium and talked. What made it revealing was that it was a little more unfiltered; she was still on a match high, the adrenaline was still flowing, she was talking a mile a minute, and her eyes were still burning with intensity.

“The arm felt great. I was just excited to play, I’m still buzzing,” she said.

The flash point of this match against Hradecka, better known as a doubles player but blessed with two-handed groundstrokes on both sides and a serve that can hit 120 mph in the desert conditions, came at 4-2 in the first set.

Bouchard got off to a great start, a 4-0 lead. But Hradecka narrowed the gap to 4-2 and even had a break point on Bouchard’s serve to get back on serve at 4-3.

The Canadian averted that crisis, partly because her Czech opponent failed to get returns into play when she really needed to. After that, the threat from the other side of the net seemed to fade away, and Bouchard just cruised.

What she didn’t do was display some of the slight technical modifications spotted on the practice court – particularly on the serve, which looked pared down, simplified when she was going through her paces with new coach Sam Sumyk. That’s understandable; once they start counting the score, a player has to count on the muscle memory.