Sabalenka won’t be taking part in this year’s Paris Olympics.
World No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka has announced that she has decided to skip the Paris Olympics because it is “too much for the scheduling” and also noted that she would prefer not to expose herself to changing surfaces in such a short time.
After concluding her French Open run in the quarterfinal, Sabalenka is set to kick off her grass season at this week’s WTA 500 tournament in Berlin. After taking part in Berlin, Sabalenka will turn her focus to Wimbledon, where she will try to win her third Grand Slam title.
12 days after Wimbledon ends, the Olympic tennis event at Roland Garros starts – which is July 26th. After Wimbledon and the Paris Olympics, the North American hard court swing is next on the calendar.
And 26-year-old Sabalenka feels also playing at the Olympics would be too much for her so therefore she decided to skip this year’s Summer Games.
“It’s too much for the scheduling. I made the decision to take care of my health. It’s too much of changing the surface,” Sabalenka said, via Jonathan Crane of Deutsche-Welle.
Sabalenka won’t be making her second Olympic appearance this year
In the summer of 2021, Sabalenka made her Olympic debut at the Tokyo Olympics, which were originally scheduled for 2020 but got pushed back to 2021 due to the pandemic.
In her first and lone Olympic appearance, Sabalenka didn’t impress as she exited the event in the second round. That year, Sabalenka started her Tokyo Olympics campaign with a dominant 6-2 6-1 win over Magda Linette but then suffered a shock three-set defeat to Donna Vekic in the second round.
Since Sabalenka is 26 and still relatively young, missing Paris doesn’t mean that her second Olympic appearance will never come. In 2028, the Los Angeles Olympics will be taking place and since it will likely be on a hard surface, that could be a better opportunity for Sabalenka.
