Eugenie Bouchard embarrassed after interviewer asks ‘Can you give us a twirl?’

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jan/21/eugenie-bouchard-embarrassed-interviewer-twirl

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Canada’s 20-year-old Eugenie Bouchard was left embarrassed when the male presenter conducting her on-court interview at the Australian Open asked her: “Can you give us a twirl?”

When the Wimbledon runner-up replied “A twirl?”, the interviewer, Ian Cohen, told her: “A twirl, like a pirouette, here you go.” Somewhat uncomfortably, the No7-ranked player did as she was asked, then laughed and buried her face in her hands.

Later, during her post-match news conference, Bouchard spoke first about her dominating 6-0, 6-3 win over Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands, then addressed the twirl on Margaret Court Arena.

“It was very unexpected,” said Bouchard, who reached the semi-finals at last year’s Australian Open. “I don’t know, an old guy asking you to twirl. It was funny.”

A representative for the host broadcaster, Channel Seven, told the Daily Mail Australia the interview did not air in Australia.

“Tennis Australia is the host broadcaster and provide a world feed to other broadcasters where this interview was picked up,” the channel said. “Ian works for Tennis Australia.”

Cohen was holding a Channel Seven microphone during the interview.

Bouchard broke into the top 10 for the first time last year after her success at Wimbledon where she lost in the final to Petra Kvitova. Her current ranking is the highest ever for a Canadian player.

“I try to get into an aggressive position as much as possible,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve achieved that much so far … I’m proud, of course, of what I did last year, but I want to win a Grand Slam. I want to get to No1 in the world. I did good last year but I want to do so much better.”

After Serena Williams’s first-round win Tuesday on Margaret Court Arena the same presenter asked her to twirl for the crowd, which she often does anyway after winning.

“Serena is good at her twirl. She does them all the time,” Bouchard told the presenter, and then added: “Maybe I should cut a hole in my top tonight and show off my back like Serena.”