Eugenie Bouchard: Rather be in Rio than watch it on TV from home

Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard will play at the Rio Olympics next month, after weighing the risks posed by the Zika virus and security concerns in Brazil

Montreal: Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard will play at the Rio Olympics next month, after weighing the risks posed by the Zika virus and security concerns in Brazil. "It was a hard decision for me and I definitely thought about all the pros and cons," Bouchard said.

Eugenie Bouchard

"But at the end of the day, I knew in my heart I didn't want to be sitting at home watching the Olympics on TV. Also knowing I might have two or three Olympics in my career, I felt that the decision to go was the right one."

Bouchard is currently ranked 42nd in the world. Her compatriot Milos Raonic, Romania's Simona Halep and Czechs Tomas Berdych and Karolina Pliskova have all decided not to play in Rio, with Zika among the biggest concerns.

The mosquito-borne virus has been leaked to birth defects and, more rarely, neurological problems.

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