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Women's doubles Thursday for Eugenie Bouchard, singles and mixed doubles Friday in a busy US Open

The Canadian and Russian were victorious in their first-ever match together, advancing to the second round of the women's doubles at the US Open. (Stephanie Myles/opencourt.ca)

NEW YORK – There was no off-day for Genie Bouchard after her second-round singles win over Polona Hercog of Slovenia, as she kicked off the women’s doubles event with partner Elena Vesnina before an enthousiastic crowd on smaller Court No. 4 Thursday.

Bouchard and Vesnina, who forms one of the best teams in the world with regular partner Ekaterina Makarova (who is sitting this one out), defeated Tatjana Maria of Germany and Madison Brengle of the U.S. 7-5, 6-2 to advance to a meeting with the No. 6 seeds, Americans Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears.

“Elena is a great doubles player, so I just followed what she said, followed the orders,” Bouchard said afterwards, as a couple of interview requests from Quebec media outlets somehow morphed into a packed press conference in the smaller No. 2 room. “Elena said she researched my doubles history and saw that I won two Wimbledons in a row in the juniors. So she told me right before we went on the court,” Bouchard added laughing. “I said, ‘You have a lot of confidence in me, Googling my results.”

Bouchard was asked again about her mixed doubles pairing with the controversial Nick Kyrgios, which will start Friday, after her third-round singles match against Dominika Cibulkova, against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and Artem Sitak of New Zealand.

They are the only doubles match of any kind scheduled on Court 17 on Friday, no doubt because of the interest both players generate. Bouchard's singles match Friday will be on Louis Armstrong Stadium, the second-biggest court after Arthur Ashe Stadium.

She still wouldn’t admit to any hesitation about accepting the mixed doubles invitation in terms of how the on-court association with Kyrgios might impact her, although the question was fairly general and didn’t stray into more sensitive areas along the lines of, “Would you think the same way if you were Donna Vekic?”

(Kyrgios' on-court comments to opponent Stan Wawrinka in Montreal dragged an unwitting Vekic, a 19-year-old Croat reported to be Wawrinka's girlfriend, into the ugliness as her personal life was sort of laid out there for social media to feast upon).

“I think he’s a great person and a great player,” Bouchard said.

As for Serena Williams’ quest for the calendar Grand Slam, the 21-year-old Canadian was excited. “I want her to do that. That’s unbelievable what she’s trying to do. Even if I play her I almost want her to win,” she said. “I mean, I’m joking, but I think she’s the greatest player ever. So if I can help her achieve that, I will help her.”

As of this year, Bouchard and Williams share an agent, Jill Smoller, who has been representing Williams for eons. Bouchard joked that given all the hoopla, she was feeling a little neglected.

Cibulkova, a former top-10 player and Australian Open finalist who had Achilles’ surgery back in March, has looked impressive the last two weeks after such a long break. The four-month absence dropped the Slovak’s ranking from No. 11 to outside the top 50.

“A very good player; it happens to everyone to have drops in their level,” said Bouchard, who appeared unaware of Cibulkova’s extended absence and the reason for it “We’ll battle the whole way, on each point.”

Cibulkova posted the first upset of the tournament as she opened play on Arthur Ashe Stadium Monday with a win over No. 7 seed Ana Ivanovic. She survived American qualifier Jessica Pegula Wednesday in another three-set match.