World No.3 Aryna Sabalenka will not play at the Paris Olympics, saying she the scheduling of the women’s tennis tour makes it impossible to do so and protect her health.
Tunisia’s world No.10 Ons Jabeur later said she was also missing Paris for the same reason.
Sabalenka hit out at what she deemed “simply bad planning from the WTA”.
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“After the Olympics we have to fly straight to Canada for a mandatory event. That is too much pressure and affects the health,” Sabalenka said.
“Unfortunately I have to sacrifice one tournament and at this stage of my career it is the Olympic Games.
“It is simply too much. Now we are playing on grass, on clay at the Olympics, on hard court in Canada. It is so crazy and damages our health.”
Sabalenka, who has won the past two Australian Open women’s singles titles, made the announcement in Berlin on Monday, where she is drawn to play Daria Kasatkina in the last 16.
The 26-year-old Belarusian won the Australian Open in January, but was then knocked out by 17-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva in the French Open quarter-finals this month.
Sabaleka said that her decision had nothing to do with the fact that Belarusians and Russians can only compete as neutrals and without their national symbols at the Olympics in connection with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Jabeur made her decision public with a brief but similarly concerned statement on social media.
“After consulting with my medical team we have decided that the quick change of surface and the body’s adaptation required would put my knee at risk and jeopardise the rest of my season,” she wrote.
“I have always loved representing my country in any competition.
“However, I must listen to my body.”
The Paris Olympics tennis tournament is July 27-August 4, the Canadian event in the form of the Toronto Masters beginning just two days later from August 6-12.
Other big names to pull out include world No.6 Andrey Rublev and fellow stars Ben Shelton and Karen Khachanov on the men’s side, and Liudmila Samsonova and Elise Mertens from the women’s draw.
Australia will be led by new world No.7 Alex de Minaur but the country’s No.2 men’s singles player Jordan Thompson and Wimbledon champion Max Purcell have opted out of the Olympics to pursue ranking points in concurrent ATP events.
World No.3 doubles player Matt Ebden is set to pair up with veteran John Peers in the men’s event and world No.7 Ellen Perez in the mixed.
“I usually want to play with Max as we play in the Davis Cup, but Max doesn’t want to play at Olympics. He wants to play singles in the USA tournaments and get his ranking up,” Ebden recently told AAP.
“Thompson’s not going either, he also wants to play tournaments in the States.
“I’ve played together with Peersy. A year or two ago we played a couple of tournaments together, played in a final, and we’re going to play a few lead-in tournaments together this next month.
“I think de Minaur and (Alexei) Popyrin might team up, the two singles guys teaming up to play some doubles.”
Perez will partner either Daria Saville or Ajla Tomljanovic in the women’s doubles, with Tomljanovic set to play singles.
Saville told AAP she is desperate to play at the Olympics but her ranking is not high enough to get her into the singles, and her only hope is if the rankings allow her to be Perez’s partner in the doubles.
“I would love to play with Dasha (Saville), she’s been super keen. We played Billie Jean King Cup together and a little bit even last year here and there. We’ve done well, so that would be the ideal situation,” Perez told AAP.
“But I know that Ajla was interested in wanting to play and she put her hand up, so I have two great options, either way.”
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