Hopeful signs from Eugenie Bouchard about Canada's upcoming Fed Cup tie in Quebec City against Belarus

MELBOURNE, Australia – There were positive indications from top Canadian Genie Bouchard about the upcoming Fed Cup tie against Belarus in Quebec City, in the immediate aftermath of her second-round loss at the Australian Open Wednesday night.

She told Eh Game before the tournament began that she would make a decision about whether she would lead the Canadian team only after her Australian Open was over. That final decision wasn’t forthcoming less than an hour after the 6-4, 6-2 loss to Agnieszka Radwanska, but certainly there’s reason for fans – and Tennis Canada – to be hopeful.

Bouchard’s circumstances this year are radically different than they were in 2014, when the 21-year-old Canadian was rising to the top of the game like a rocket. They are also markedly different from 2015, when she struggled with confidence and injuries.

Encouraged by her efforts the first three weeks of the season, Bouchard is looking to play more tennis; she has already met the criteria to play at the Summer Olympics in Rio.

Already, she has committed to playing two more lower-tier WTA events in February: the Rio Open in Brazil on red clay the week of Feb. 15, and the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur the week of Feb. 29. (Worth wondering why she wouldn't play in Monterrey, Mexico that second week, opting instead to go around the world and back in the span of a few weeks instead of staying in the same general part of the planet through February. But that's another story).

Because of the current state of her ranking, Bouchard cannot play the top-drawer tournaments in the Middle East, Doha and Dubai, in February. So that means significantly more globetrotting to find matches to get back on track.

(The second-round loss in Melbourne will drop Bouchard out of the top 50. Practically speaking, that means that if the Rogers Cup deadline were this week, she likely would need a wild card to get in. If the deadline for the Olympics were this week, Bouchard would be right on the bubble and likely would need some lobbying from Tennis Canada to get a wild card there, too. The struggle is real).

But there are small gaps between the events. The Fed Cup tie takes place the weekend of Feb. 6-7; Bouchard can use the interim to take a rest after a busy 10 days of match play and then get back to training.

There then is a week between Fed Cup and the trip to South America, and another week between that trip and another long journey back to Asia to play on the hard courts again.

The big tournament at Indian Wells, California, a 10-day event, comes just a few days after the Kuala Lumpur event, as it starts mid-week.

The schedule could work. And Bouchard could find a top-quality matchup in Quebec City in the person of Victoria Azarenka, who may well play the tie to ensure her Olympic eligibility.

Tennis Canada’s Fed Cup dilemma is ongoing, because the entire structure of the thing very much depends on the participation of the only currently top-level player they have. And Bouchard’s commitment has been fickle the last few years.

That doesn’t even factor in the challenge of selling tickets to a small women’s tennis event in Quebec without knowing if the country’s biggest star will be there.

In Feb. 2014 for the tie against Serbia in Montreal, Bouchard signed all the paperwork for her Fed Cup participation just moments before she stepped on the court. There had to be some sweaty palms in the Tennis Canada executive offices.

A year ago, when Bouchard reached the quarterfinals here in Australia, Tennis Canada announced its squad at the deadline – but it was a squad of three, with one spot vacant in the hopes that Bouchard would fill it.

She did not; not only did she add a tournament in Antwerp, Belgium the week right after the Fed Cup, a scheduling decision she vowed not to repeat after flying to the Middle East directly after the tie the previous year, she also had just hired coach Sam Sumyk.

While her team was in Quebec City losing to the Czechs, she practiced in Montreal with Sumyk, then flew to Europe.

Bouchard decided at the last minute that she would take part in the tie against Romania last April, a “will-she-or-won’t-she” drama that went on far too long and, given the state of her tennis at the time, resulted in two singles defeats.

At the time, Fed Cup captain Sylvain Bruneau said that Tennis Canada would endeavour to get the player commitments from all players nailed down much earlier for future ties.

“All players”, of course, means Bouchard. Because the rest of the Canadian players who fill out the team are usually always on board.

Asked about that statement last month during the Fed Cup training camp in Florida, Bruneau admitted the intention had not translated into reality.

“I still think it’s preferable for everyone, whoever it is, to decide several weeks before. Or to say yes and if there’s an injury, I understand. In other words, is Fed Cup part of your plans for the next few months, or not? I understand, sometimes, that for some it’s difficult to plan ahead of time,” he said. “But no, we haven’t set a deadline.

It’s not necessarily fair, but it is what it is; without a healthy, on-form Bouchard, Canada doesn't have a chance against the better opposing nations. By necessity, the team must be dependant on her level of commitment.

Meanthile, there is a $100,000 tournament in Midland, Michigan the same week as the Fed Cup and three potential players – Fichman, Abanda and Carol Zhao, are entered in the qualifying. Aleksandra Wozniak, a former Fed Cup stalwart who is coming back from injury and lost in the first round of qualifying in Australia, also is motivated to play it.

But they don’t really know how to plan the next few weeks. And they can't assume they will play, because there is only room for four players on the squad. The official announcement will only come on Tuesday.

There are press conferences, and a team dinner, and team practices set up around the Fed Cup tie and if any of the players decide to play Midland anyway and make it through the qualifying and into the main draw, that pushes their presence in Michigan well into the middle of that week even if they lose early.

Fed Cup is one thing, and the players do get financial incentives for taking part. But they also have their pro careers to worry about; all of them struggled in 2015 and are looking to get back on track any way they can.

In other words, it’s another Fed Cup year, and another year of uncertainty.