MOSCOW, July 25 Moscow native Elena Rybakina, representing Kazakhstan, has withdrawn from the Olympic tennis tournament, her name has been removed from the grid on the official website of the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
The reason for Rybakina's refusal to participate in the tournament was illness.
«After the Wimbledon tournament, I fell ill with acute bronchitis, and despite attempts to return to training, my body has not yet recovered. Doctors categorically forbade me to go out on the court. I am very sorry that I will not be able to live up to your hopes and compete for our team at the Olympics in Paris. I was so close to a medal in Tokyo and carefully prepared for the Paris Games to win gold for Kazakhstan. Unfortunately, illness prevented these plans from coming true,» the official website of the Tennis Federation of Kazakhstan quotes Rybakina as saying.
On Thursday, the draw for the tournament determined that Rybakina, who received the third seed, would be her opponent in the first round of Jacqueline Christian, but now the Romanian will be played by Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia (17th seed), and the vacant spot in the Australian Daria Saville took the lead. Rybakina was also supposed to perform in a pair with Alexander Bublik in the mixed doubles.
Rybakina is 25 years old. She is the winner of Wimbledon in 2022 and a finalist of the Australian Open in 2023. At the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Rybakina took fourth place.