Rafael Nadal, Naomi Osaka to miss Wimbledon

Naomi Osaka (Facebook)

Two tennis superstars announced they are withdrawing from Wimbledon on Thursday. According to Simon Briggs of the Telegraph, Japan’s Naomi Osaka needs some personal time with family and friends. Meanwhile, Spain’s Rafael Nadal stated he needs to take some time off because his body apparently needs a break.

Osaka, the women’s world number two, has won four grand slam titles, all four on hard court. She has won the 2018 and 2020 United States Open titles, and the 2019 and 2021 Australian Open titles. However, in the early stages of her tennis career, Osaka has never reached past the third round of Wimbledon. She missed the French Open this past spring for mental health reasons.

Osaka does plan to compete at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, however. This will be the biggest tennis tournament she will ever be participating in for her home country of Japan in her entire career.  Osaka and golfer Hideki Matsuyama are megastars who are the faces of the Japanese Olympic team in Japan.

Nadal meanwhile stated he will not be competing at the 2020 Olympic Games next month either. Five years ago at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Nadal won the Olympic gold medal in men’s doubles with Marc Lopez. In his career, Nadal also won a gold medal in men’s singles at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Two other men’s tennis players have announced they will not be going to the Olympic Games either. They are Austria’s Dominic Thiem, the defending United States Open champion, and Norway’s Casper Ruud, who won the French Open tuneup this year in Switzerland.

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