After looking unstoppable during her second-round match at the Australian Open, Eugenie Bouchard ran into something that halted her in her tracks: a male presenter asking her to “twirl” for the crowd.
Bouchard breezed into the third round of the tennis tournament Wednesday, beating her opponent 6-0, 6-3 in just 54 minutes.
During the on-court interview after the match, Bouchard thanked the crowd for their support and talked about how she briefly lost focus as she surrendered a few games to Dutch player Kiki Bertens.
After 30 seconds of tennis talk, the interviewer brought up a tweet Bouchard had made about Serena Williams’ outfit the day before, and asked the Canadian tennis star, “Can you give us a twirl and tell us about your outfit?”
"A twirl?" the visibly flustered 20-year-old asked.
"A twirl, like a pirouette, here you go," responded the presenter.
Bouchard obliged by giving a quick spin around and hiding her laughter in her hands, while the audience seemed to appreciate her playing along.
“It was very unexpected,” Bouchard said in a post-game conference, seeming like she was still unsure how to react. “I mean, yeah. I don’t know. It’s an old guy asking you to twirl. It’s funny.”
The No. 7-ranked player seems to be a magnet for off-topic, embarrassing questions. At last year’s Australian Open, a female presenter asked her who she would date if she could date anyone.
Her answer didn’t quite do it for the fans that day – after some nervous laughter, Bouchard decided on “Justin Bieber” for her imaginary date.
