Eugenie Bouchard down to No. 48 in the latest WTA Tour rankings

The full effect of Canadian Genie Bouchard's hellish 2015 season was felt Monday, when the updated WTA Tour rankings had her at ... No. 48 in the world.

That's a drop of 10 spots from the previous week, reflecting the fact that the WTA Tour erases all the points earned at its two year-end final tournaments before they begin, unlike the usual procedure of having each week's events drop off the rolling 52-week ranking system once the tournaments are completed.

That's how Bouchard rose, briefly, to her career-best No. 5 a year ago; the quirk in the calculations benefits players who didn't qualify for the Tour Finals the previous year as those who did play lose any points earned.

What a difference a year makes – and not only for Bouchard.

The 21-year-old is one four players from the inaugural 2014 Singapore edition not to make it back in 2015; Ana Ivanovic (from No. 12 down to No. 16) and Caroline Wozniacki (from No. 11 to No. 17) also felt the effect in the rankings. Serena Williams, who chose to skip the tournament, is so far ahead of everyone else that her No. 1 ranking is not in danger.

What that means is that Bouchard will be unseeded at the Australian Open in January. When a player is trying to find some form, being unseeded is major challenge; the 32 seeded players are guaranteed not to meet another seeded player until at least the third round, allowing them to find some form against opponents who could theoretically be outside the top 200, if they came through the qualifying.

As it stands, Bouchard will be just as likely to meet a Williams or a Maria Sharapova in the first round, with the draw being random.

There will be no opportunity for Bouchard to ease into 2016. She reached the quarter-finals in Australia last year, losing to Maria Sharapova – far and away her best result of the season. If the worst-case scenario occurred there, a first-round loss with some 430 ranking points to defend, the Canadian likely would find herself ... out of the top 100.

In other news, the Canadian chose to skip the Hopman Cup this time around, which would have been a perfect way to return to competitive tennis without all the tournament pressure. Held in Perth, Australia at the beginning of the season, the Hopman Cup is essentially a country vs. country exhibition, a bit of fun where players are guaranteed three singles matches against top-quality players, but with no consequences to ranking and consequently no pressure. Bouchard played it in 2013 with Milos Raonic, and last year with Vasek Pospisil.

When the Montrealer returns to the court, it will therefore be in a real match situation, after having basically been out for some four months as she dealt with the after-effects of the concussion suffered Sept. 4 at the US Open.

There are no new updates on Bouchard's lawsuit against the USTA; that's likely to be the case for awhile. Bouchard is in Montreal this week, getting plenty of camera and social-media play after a dream Montreal weekend for spots fans that included the Toronto Raptors' game at the Bell Centre Friday night ...

followed by the Canadians' win over the Toronto Maple Leafs 24 hours later ...

and then the Impact game on Sunday.

She was a brave, brave woman to pose for this one.

On the plus side, hopefully it means she's feeling a lot better.