Will a wobbly warmup be the key to Eugenie Bouchard's first-round match in Washington?

WASHINGTON, D.C. – When you don't have a hitting partner with you, and you need a warmup for your match, you ended up on the practice schedule as "Genie Bouchard and ... 'looking."

The Canadian hit the stadium court at the Citi Open about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, ahead of her first-round match against Italy's Camila Giorgi, and warmed up with one of the tournament's designated hitting partners, Leon Vessels.

Vessels, who was part of the junior initiative here and has been part of the grounds crew for the last seven years, got a little taste of the limelight earlier in the week when the tournament granted him a wild card into the qualifying (which had plenty of spots available). He got a couple of games against 20-year-old Ernesto Escobedo, an American ranked No. 269. He also has served as a hitting partner for all the top players at this event for the last several years.

But then, after the 15 seconds of renown, it was back on the warmup courts. And Leon was having a bad day Tuesday. To say the least.

He was struggling to much that Bouchard coach Nick Saviano quickly subbed himself in, and exiled Vessels to the sidelines and, eventually, to the exit.

But he wasn't done - while Saviano was pushing it to give Bouchard her warmup, Vessels ended up being interviewed by a local TV station up in the stands.

Here's how it all went down.

Not his fault, of course. But it certainly didn't escape Bouchard's notice.

Saviano couldn't really hit topspin backhands because of a bad wrist. So he gave Bouchard what he could; she was to face a very hard hitter in Giorgi.

Bouchard seemed pretty relaxed about it all. It certainly was a new pre-match strategy. But there's no doubt it didn't help in the proper preparation for a very tough first-round match.