For now, Eugenie Bouchard remains undecided about her Olympics participation

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The final decision, when it comes, appears almost a foregone conclusion even if there is still some wiggle room.

But as of late Tuesday, Canada’s Genie Bouchard remains on the fence about whether or not she will represent Canada as an Olympian for the first time in Rio de Janeiro.  

Her words aren’t much different from what they were nearly a month ago, before Wimbledon, when she expressed uncertainty about whether or not she would go because of the possible threat of the Zika virus. Perhaps the biggest shift is that then, most of her answers began with some version of "the plan is to go, but ..." The last few days, there hasn't been much of that.

With Tennis Canada CEO Kelly Murumets’ public comments Tuesday at a sponsors’ press conference in Montreal, the subject came up yet again.

Murumets said she expected Bouchard would speak to potential doubles partner Gabriela Dabrowski before deciding, with both playing at the Rogers Cup in Montreal next week.

But both Bouchard and Dabrowski are here in Washington, D.C. for the Citi Open; Dabrowski is the top seed in the women’s doubles with a Chinese partner, but has yet to play her first-round match while Bouchard was eliminated Tuesday in a tough one against Camila Giorgi of Italy.

Bouchard told Eh Game she hadn’t really considered the effect on Dabrowski or on Vasek Pospisil, with whom she had committed to playing the mixed doubles event.

Here’s what she said.

We’re told that a few days before Milos Raonic announced he would be skipping the Olympics, Murumets asked Bouchard for a final decision so that if there were indeed bad news, Tennis Canada would be able to get it all over with in one announcement.

That appeal has gone unheeded.

“I’m kind of a last-minute person, so I’m going to make a decision next week, I guess, the week before (Rio). Yeah, I really don’t know what to do at this point. I am trying to learn as much as I can about it; obviously I don’t know if anyone knows enough about it to really give a good opinion on whether as athletes, we should go or not. I just don’t know if the health of my future babies is worth it, so that’s what I’m trying to decide in my head,” Bouchard told a press conference after her loss to Giorgi.

Raonic’s original contention when he sent out a Facebook message announcing he wasn’t going to play was that it was because of the threat of Zika and “various health concerns.”

He changed his tune by the time he did an interview with Sportsnet this week, saying it was a long-term career move; Raonic knows his body well enough to know that playing three tournaments in a row has been too tough on him. With the Rogers Cup, the Olympics and Cincinnati three straight weeks (and the US Open shortly after that), and the other two events being Masters 1000 series (one of them in his hometown), he had to make a call.

No doubt Bouchard will be asked this question many more times when she does arrive in Montreal to begin preparing for next week’s Rogers Cup. Until that day that she wakes up and decides it’s decision day.