With just a week left for the Tokyo Olympics, a number of top tennis superstars have withdrawn from the Tokyo Olympics games.The sole reason behind that is the busy schedule due to French Open and Wimbledon along with ATP and WTA tours which are coupled with the quarantine amid the COVID-19 situation in Japan.
The players who are not traveling are:
● Stan Wawrinka
● Nick Kyrigios
● Simona Halep
● Dominic Thiem
● Serena Williams
● Rafael Nadal
● Roger Federer
● Novak Djokovic ( undecided)
Nick Kyrigios :
Few days after retiring midway through Wimbledon 2021,the Australian star confirmed that he won't be participating in the Olympics because playing without spectators doesn't feel right to him. He also added that an injury was also a factor in his withdrawal.
Stan Wawrinka :
Wawrinka, a former world number 3 and also a gold medal winner at the 2008 Olympics event in the men's doubles partnering with Roger Federer had withdrawn because he underwent his second left foot surgery of the year. He struggled to find his A game since the knee injury in2017.
Simona Halep :
Simona Halep could not participate in it due to her calf injury. She hasn't fully recovered from it yet and will need more time to do so.
Serena Williams :
Serena Williams did not cite her reasons properly but she told that she didn't feel like playing inthe tournament and did not want to think about it too much.
Dominic Thiem :
Dominic Thiem said he is not ready yet to compete for a tennis match. He has been training hard for the last two weeks and is starting to improve his conditioning and concentration little by little. He aims to defend his US Open title.
Players outside Asia will face plenty of challenges traveling from their respective countries to Japan due to pandemic restrictions. Moreover, Japan continues to register more than 1000 COVID-19 cases a day. That would have done little to ease the fears of the players. Another reason is the absence of ranking points at the Olympics. For a period of eight years from 2004 Athens to 2012 London, the WTA and ATP Tours awarded ranking points to the players for their Olympic results. This practice was however discontinued from the 2016 Rio Games. The absence of ranking points means that there is less incentive for the players to travel all the way to Japan to participate in the Olympics. There are also ATP and WRAP events that are scheduled to take place at the same time as the Olympics, which could be a better option for the players.
On the surface it may seem strange that so many times players are skipping the Olympics this year. But dig a little deeper and it becomes fairly clear why they are doing so. In fact, we shouldn't be surprised if more players announce their withdrawal over the next few days.
