Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard decided that she will play in the Rio Olympics after initially being unsure whether she’d go given the risks of Zika and the security concerns that have plagued the games.
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At the time Bouchard was sitting seventh in the Women’s Tennis Association rankings after a sensational 2014 that saw her reach the Wimbledon final and the semi-finals at the Australian and the French.
The Montreal native announced she is heading to Rio when talking to reporters in advance of the Rogers Cup.
On Sunday, after much deliberation, she announced that she would be going to the Rio Olympics to compete for Canada. “I know that it’s better for me to play and I feel good with my decision”.
She added: “I thought that I would maybe have two or three chances to participate at the Olympics during my career”. “It’s just unfortunate because it would be my first Games”, she said, “and to have a problem like this [Zika] kind of dampening the excitement of, potentially, your first Olympic Games, it really sucks, to be honest”.
Fellow Canadian and world number seven Milos Raonic has opted out of the event due to the virus. Vasek Pospisil and Daniel Nestor will join Bouchard and Dabrowski in Rio for men’s competition.
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Safarova defeated Bouchard in their only previous meeting.
