German ace Angelique Kerber withdraws from Tokyo Olympics

German ace Angelique Kerber has become the latest tennis player to pull out of the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday. The 33-year-old has said that her "body needs rest".

"London 2012 and Rio 2016 as part of the German team has always been one of my favorite memories," she wrote on Twitter.

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"That makes it even more disappointing for me to accept the fact that my body needs rest after the intense few weeks that lie behind me and that I have to recover first before returning to competition later this summer!" Kerber wrote.

Tennis stars like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Denis Shapovalov, Nick Kyrgios, Dominic Thiem, Simona Halep and Stan Wawrinka have already decided to skip the Olympics. Serb ace Novak Djokovic has said that his chances of playing in the upcoming Summer Games were "50/50".

Earlier, English ace Johanna Konta and Canadian tennis player Bianca Andreescu withdrew from the upcoming Tokyo Olympics. The English player took to Twitter and revealed that she had tested positive for coronavirus.

Johanna was also forced to miss the Wimbledon 2021 after a member in her team had tested positive for the dreaded virus.

“As a result, I have been unable to train for the last two and a half weeks and sadly, this has put my body in a situation where I am unable to ask it to be fully ready in time for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. This is a heart-breaking reality for me, as representing Team GB at the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016 is one of my most treasured memories from my career so far," read her statement.

World number 5 Bianca Andreescu took to Instagram on Monday revealed that she would not be taking part in the Tokyo 2020 games.

“To all my amazing fans, I would like to inform you that I have made the very difficult decision to not play in the Tokyo Olympics later this month. I have been dreaming of representing Canada at the Olympics since I was a little girl, but with all the challenges we are facing as it relates to the pandemic, I know that deep in my heart, this is the right decision to make for myself. I look forward to representing Canada in future Fed Cup ties, and competing at the 2024 Olympics in Paris!" read Bianca’s post.