Sabalenka to skip Paris games

The Paris Olympics won’t figure in the summer plans of Aryna Sabalenka after the WTA No.3 announced she has chosen not to bother with the Games.

While the double Australian Open winner gave taking care of her health and a crowded schedule as her reasons, the hidden factor might be her Belarus citizenship.

The Miami-based player prefers not to bother with all of the bureaucracy, with the IOC last week naming 14 “approved” Russian and 11 Belarus athletes – though tennis was not among the sports involved in the analysis.

Sabalenka, 26, said the crowded women’s tennis calendar is enough for her to deal with.

 “It’s too much for the scheduling. I made the decision to take care of my health. It’s too much of changing (of) the surface,” she told local media at the start of the WTA Berlin event on Monday.

Sabalenka failed to impress in her only games appearance in Tokyo, actually held in 2021 due to Covid; she lost in the tournament’s second round to Donna Vekic.

“I’m not going to play the Olympics because of all the complicated rules,” she said. “I have to sacrifice something and it will be the Olympics.

“At this stage of my career I need to take care of my health,”added the player who fell in the Roland Garros quarter-finals to teenaged Mirra Andreeva.

“It’s all too tricky and the schedule is too much.”