The third-ranked tennis player Simona Halep had withdrawn from the Tokyo Olympics 2020 after she revealed that she won’t be able to recover from her calf injury in less time. She is also pulled out of Wimbledon last week and joins Serena Willams, Rafael Nadal and Dominic Theim in missing the Tokyo Games which is starting on July 23.
Nothing brings me more pride than representing Romania, but sadly the recovery from my calf injury requires more time and I have made the decision to withdraw from the Olympic Games this summer. After the disappointment of missing the French Open and Wimbledon… pic.twitter.com/Q6UziyHhpI
— Simona Halep (@Simona_Halep) June 28, 2021
Simona tweeted, “Nothing brings me more pride than presenting Romania, but unfortunately the recovery from my calf injury requires more time and I have made my decision to withdraw from the Olympic Games this summer.” Last month, she had quite a claycourt event in Rome after picking up the injury during her second-round match against Angelina Kerber and was subsequently forced to withdraw from the French Open.
Further, Halep added that after the disappointment of missing the French Open and Wimbledon, also skipping the Tokyo Olympics forcefully, she was very sad, but she is determined to come back stronger. She had suffered an opening-round loss at the London Olympics in 2012 and skipped the 2016 Rio Olympic Games due to concerns over the Zika virus.
Mihai Covaliu, the president of the Romanian Olympic told TVR, “Simona Halep will not participate, she will not be the flag bearer of Romania. We are very sad, we know how much Simona wanted to participate in the Olympic Games. “