Westmount native and rising tennis star Eugenie Bouchard is in the running for the title of most improved player on the WTA Tour.
She is up against American CoCo Vandeweghe, Karolina Pliskova from the Czech Republic, Australian Casey Dellacqua and Caroline Garcia from France.
Bouchard won her first WTA title in May at the Nuremberg Cup, defeating Karolina Pliskova in three sets.
She also reached the finals at the Wimbledon, the semifinals at the Australian and French Opens, and the fourth round at the U.S. Open.
For the first time this year, the WTA is allowing fans to vote for the winner of the most improved honour. The winner will be determined using a combination of fan and media votes and will be announced Tuesday, Nov. 18.
Tuesday night, Bouchard took to centre court in Toronto to hit a few balls in front of a crowd -- a seemingly mundane event, except she was playing at centre court of the Air Canada Centre in Toronto ahead of the Raptors' annual Remembrance Day game. In heels. (See video below.)
Her opponent was mascot The Raptor, who she disposed of quite easily by launching a shot into his (her?) chest.
She then signed a few basketballs for fans in the crowd and was presented with a personalized Raptors jersey.
The Raptors won the game in comeback fashion, beating the Orlando Magic 104-100.
Bouchard was most recently in action in October when she bowed out of the WTA finals after losing three straight matches.
