Coco Gauff and Jennifer Brady will lead a U.S. Olympic tennis group that can compete on the Tokyo Games with none of the nation’s two highest-ranking ladies or the 4 prime males, in response to a roster obtained by the Associated Press.
The record of gamers touring to Japan contains 17-year-old Gauff, 2021 Australian Open runner-up Brady, Jessica Pegula and Alison Riske for ladies’s singles and Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafo, Tennys Sandgren and Marcos Giron for males’s singles.
Notably absent: Serena and Venus Williams, who’re the homeowners of a mixed 9 Olympic medals, have a complete of 30 Grand Slam singles titles and 14 different majors collectively in doubles.
Sofia Kenin, Australian Open champion and 2020 French Open runner-up, is presently the highest-ranked American girl at No. 6, however she opted to not go to the Olympics.
“It was a difficult decision, but I talked and discussed it with my agents,” Kenin mentioned after shedding to American Madison Brengle 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday within the second spherical of Wimbledon.
“I couldn’t take anyone with me, and I definitely wanted to have someone.”
The Tokyo Games have been postponed a 12 months in the past as a result of coronavirus pandemic, and now COVID-19 circumstances are on the rise within the host metropolis. The Olympics will open on 23 July, lower than two weeks after Wimbledon ends.
Number eight Serena Williams pulled herself out over the weekend. She injured her proper leg throughout a match on the All England Club on Tuesday and was dominated out of the match.
Brady is at quantity 15 within the WTA rankings, Gauff – a quarterfinalist at this 12 months’s French Open – at quantity 23, Pegula at quantity 26 and Riske at quantity 29.
The first 4 American males within the ATP rankings – Reilly Opelka, John Isner, Taylor Fritz and Sebastian Korda – all selected to not take part within the Olympics, as did the nation’s sixth-highest man, Sam Querrey. Korda is joined by golf star sisters Nelly and Jessica Korda in Tokyo.
Instead, the boys signed up for singles this week are ranked No. 52 Tommy Paul, No. 57 Frances Tiafo, No. 66 Marcos Giron and No. 68 Tennys Sandgren. Tiaffo defeated third seed French Open runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas at Wimbledon on Monday.
“It’s going to be a different Olympics from previous years; it’s taking away from that. That being said, I think, as an athlete, I have to go at least once. So when I got the option , so I totally jumped on it,” Giron mentioned.
“I understand why a lot of other people aren’t leaving. But I’m excited and shocked.” Qualification was based mostly on the rankings on 14 June, the day after the French Open ended.
“This is in a pandemic which, maybe, is not going to be as nice as prior to now. And I believe that is not an enormous precedence for American tennis gamers. It’s not (in) a precedence like another nations,” Querrey mentioned on Wednesday after eliminating No. 8 seed Pablo Carreo Busta at Wimbledon.
“For most Americans, when you play in it, nice. But I believe for me, I’d moderately go play (tour occasion) in Cabo, Atlanta, DC, I’d moderately win Indian Wells than win Olympic gold, And I believe loads of different individuals really feel the identical manner,” he mentioned.
“There just isn’t a big priority in the calendar.”
The International Tennis Federation was anticipated to announce every nation’s summer time Games entrants for the game on Thursday.
According to the US roster, the remainder of its group contains Gough paired with Nicole Melicher, and Pegula with Bethanie Mattek-Sands for the ladies’s doubles, and Tiafo with Rajeev Ram and Sandgren with Austin Krejcik for the boys’s doubles. .
For the Tokyo Paralympics, beginning August 24, the US tennis group is led by eight-time medalist David Wagner. Also listed: Brian Barton, Dana Mathewson, Amy Kaiser, Shelby Barron, Casey Ratzlaff and Conner Stroud.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
