(Reuters) – Canada’s Denis Shapovalov has decided not to compete at the Tokyo Olympics due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the world number 12 said on Monday.
The 22-year-old Shapovalov is the latest player to opt out of the Olympics as Spaniard Rafa Nadal and Austria’s Dominic Thiem both announced last week they would not compete in the July 24-Aug. 1 men’s tennis tournament in Tokyo.
“Representing Canada means the world to me, but due to the current situation my team and I have decided this is the best decision for everyone’s safety,” Shapovalov wrote on Twitter.
“I can’t wait to represent Canada at future Olympic games.”
Shapovalov, who reached the quarter-finals at last year’s U.S. Open, pulled out of this year’s French Open with a shoulder injury a day after he lost in the Geneva final.
He has competed in two tournaments since, most recently in a Wimbledon tune-up at Queen’s Club in London where he lost in the semi-final on Saturday.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
