According to Sam Joseph and Jill Martin of CNN on Tuesday, two elite tennis players have decided to withdraw from the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. They are the world number three and two-time Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, and world number 10 and three-time grand slam finalist Ons Jabeur of Tunisia. Jabeur reached the final of the United States Open in 2022, and Wimbledon in 2022 and 2023.
The reasons for Sabalenka and Jabeur’s withdrawals are similar. They are both related to health. Sabalenka experienced stomach pain when she lost in the quarterfinals of the French Open to Mirra Andreeva of Russia. Meanwhile, Jabeur has reportedly been battling a knee injury in the last while which has prevented her from playing her best. It will now be interesting to see how Sabalenka and Jabeur perform at Wimbledon, which comes right before the Olympic Games.
If Sabalenka had decided to compete at the Olympic Games, she would not have competed for her home country of Belarus, but as an Individual Neutral Athlete. Belarusian and Russian athletes are not permitted to compete for their native countries because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Currently, there are two Russian athletes ranked in the top 10 in the ATP rankings. Daniil Medvedev is ranked fifth in the world, and Andrey Rublev is ranked sixth. Medvedev won the United States Open in 2021.
The tennis tournament at the Olympic Games is set to start July 27. There are five events–men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s singles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. One Belarusian woman has won two Olympic medals in tennis. At the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Victoria Azarenka won bronze in women’s singles, and teamed up with Max Mirnyi to win gold in mixed doubles.
