US teen Gauff to skip Tokyo trip after positive test
LOS ANGELES: American teen tennis star Coco Gauff will miss the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for Covid-19, she announced on Sunday.
Gauff, coming off a run to the fourth round at Wimbledon this month, tweeted her sadness at missing out on “a dream come true” at age 17.
“I am so disappointed to share the news that I have tested positive for Covid and won’t be able to play in the Olympic Games in Tokyo,”
Gauff tweeted.
“It has always been a dream of mine to represent the USA at the Olympics and I hope there will be many more chances for me to make this come true in the future.”
Gauff, who reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final at this year’s French Open, became the latest tennis standout and US athlete to miss the Olympics.
World No.25 Gauff will be forced into Covid-19 quarantine and isolation protocols.
“I want to wish TEAM USA best of luck and a safe games for every Olympian and the entire Olympic family,” Gauff tweeted.
Gauff won her second WTA singles title in May at Parma. She captured her first in 2019 at Linz.
The Olympics tennis event in Tokyo is missing a host of big names with major winners Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka, Angelique Kerber and Bianca Andreescu all absent.
However, world No.1s Novak Djokovic and Ashleigh Barty both intend to play.
Meanwhile, Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini has been forced to pull out of the Tokyo Olympics with a muscle strain, the Italian Olympic Committee (Coni) announced on Sunday.
World No.8 Berrettini picked up the injury in London where he became the first Italian to reach a Wimbledon singles final, losing in four sets to Djokovic.
Berrettini was forced “to renounce participation in the Olympic Games, due to the after-effects of a muscle injury, an unwelcome legacy of his historic exploit at Wimbledon,” Coni said.
The 25-year-old was spearheading an Italian team of Fabio Fognini, Lorenzo Sonego, Lorenzo Musetti in the men’s tennis and Sara Errani, Jasmine Paolini and Camila Giorgi in the women.
Meanwhile, Italy’s 2018 British Open golf winner Francesco Molinari also withdrew with a back problem.
Molinari, 38, also spoke of his disappointment at missing out on the Games, having skipped the 2016 Rio Games because of the Zika virus.
“I’m trying to find the right words, but I can’t find them,” Molinari said on Twitter.
“I have a back problem that has hampered me for most of the season and which now unfortunately prevents me from representing my country in the most important sporting event in the world. I will cheer on Italian athletes hoping to be able to participate in the Olympics in the future.”
He will be replaced by Renato Paratore.