Eugenie Bouchard asks for, and receives, a wild card into the Family Circle Cup next week

Canadian Genie Bouchard hadn't entered the Family Circle Cup next week in Charleston, S.C,

But after her early exit in Miami this week, her second consecutive tournament losing to a qualifier, the world No. 7 asked for, and received, a wild card into the tournament.

Family Circle Cup tournament director Eleanor Adams confirmed the awarding of the wild card to Eh Game.

Last year, Bouchard reached the semi-finals in Charleston, which is played on Har-Tru (a peculiarly North American artificial surface similar to, but not quite like, red clay).

It was a terrific tournament for the Canadian; she defeated Venus Williams and then-No. 9 Jelena Jankovic, both in three sets, and appeared to be on her way to defeating Andrea Petkovic before running out of fuel and finally succumbing, 7-5 in the third set. It ended up being a terrific opportunity lost to claim her first career WTA Tour title, as Petkovic went on to beat unseeded and unheralded Jana Cepelova in the final.

Bouchard claimed her first title a little more than a month later, on red clay in Nürnberg, Germany.

In 2013, Bouchard went all the way through the qualifying to reach the quarter-finals in Charleston, losing to Jankovic in her sixth match of the week.

So she had a lot of positive memories there. Why she didn't enter the tournament in the first place, given her great results there and with nothing else scheduled before the week pf April 20th in Stuttgart, is another question entirely.

The tournament, once the crown jewel of the WTA Tour, a stop for all the top players back in the 1970s and 1980s and one of the rare women-only events to get network broadcast time on NBC, isn't quite what it was with the demise of the American Har-Tru spring season.

This year, the top entry had been Ekaterina Makarova, ranked No. 9. So Bouchard will be the top seed. No doubt the tournament made it worth her while to play.

Bouchard asked for and was awarded a wild card into the tournament in Dubai in February, after a similar early exit from an event in Antwerp, Belgium. But 24 hours later, when the Dubai draw was made, and Bouchard wasn't in it.

We predict a different outcome this time around.