By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday July 13, 2021
Citing a knee injury, Roger Federer announced that he will skip the Tokyo Olympics.
Photo Source: AP
Roger Federer has suffered a setback with his right knee and will not play the Tokyo Olympics. The Swiss, a Gold medal winner in doubles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and a winner of the Silver medal in singles in 2012 at London, announced the news on social media on Tuesday.
Federer joins a long list of growing players to have ruled out the Olympics this year. Ten of the ATP's current Top-25 will not play, and four of the WTA's Top-20 will not make the trip.
Among the biggest names that have announced they won’t be playing: Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Simona Halep, Bianca Andreescu, Dominic Thiem, Denis Shapovalov.
The Tokyo Olympics tennis event begins on July 24, and will be held without spectators in attendance.
Novak Djokovic, who has the chance to become the first Golden Slam winner in tennis since 1988, and the first ever on the men’s side, has said that he is “50-50” about playing in Tokyo.
“I'll have to think about it,” he said on Sunday after winning the Wimbledon title. “Right now, as I said, my plan was always to go to Olympic Games. But right now I'm a little bit divided. It's kind of 50/50 because of what I heard in the last couple days.”