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Eugenie Bouchard enters second small event in leadup to January's Australian Open

Eugenie Bouchard enters second small event in leadup to January's Australian Open

Genie Bouchard still isn't on the official Australian Open entry list. But her recent training sessions down in Florida with Thomas Hogstedt must be going well because the 21-year-old Canadian has added a small WTA Tour event in Hobart, Tasmania to her early-season schedule.

Bouchard had already entered the tournament in Shenzen, China the first week of January; it's owned and managed by her agency, IMG.

The Hobart tournament is an international-level event, the lowest rung on the WTA Tour, with a total purse of $226,750 US. The other option that week – the week after Shenzen and the week before the Australian Open – is a Premier-level mixed ATP/WTA event in Sydney. But with a ranking just inside the top 50 at No. 49, Bouchard is faced with the new reality that she can no longer enter many of the top-tier events on the basis of her ranking. She would have to play the qualifying tournament, and it's hard to imagine that happening.

Bouchard has never played Hobart, not even as she was making her way up the ranks.

She will find a familiar face there, though; Fed Cup teammate Aleksandra Wozniak also has entered the Hobart event although if she doesn't gain direct entry into the Australian Open (she's on the bubble with a special injury-protection ranking of No. 108), she would have to play the qualifying there and would face a confict if she made the main draw in Hobart.

Bouchard's home base is in Miami, but she travelled across the state last week to the Bollettieri Academy in Bradenton, Fla. for some practice with Hogstedt. The big Eddie Herr junior tournament is being held at the academy, with age categories from under-12 to under-18 and plenty of kids on hand. So Bouchard posed for a lot of selfies, some of them with the young Canadian girls who idolize her.

If nothing else, all that youthful enthousiasm had to be energizing. Bouchard was back practicing in Miami on Sunday

A year ago, the Canadian was playing a hit-and-giggle exhibition event on Necker Island, and returned home to Florida to find herself needing to look for a new coach. So despite the concussion issues, she may well be a little head of the game in 2015.