(Reuters) – Olympic silver medallist Marketa Vondrousova has withdrawn from the Paris Summer Games due to a hand injury, the Czech 25-year-old said on Monday.
Vondrousova reached the women’s final in Tokyo three years ago as an unseeded player, losing to Swiss ninth seed Belinda Bencic. The Swiss, who gave birth to a daughter in April, will not be in Paris to defend her title.
“I am very sorry, but due to health reason I will not be participating in this year’s Olympic Games in Paris,” Vondrousova posted on Instagram.
“I hoped until the last moment that I could go at least in doubles, but problems with my hand won’t allow me on the court.”
Katerina Siniakova, who won gold at the last Olympics in doubles and is a nine-times Grand Slam champion in women’s doubles, will replace Vondrousova in the singles and Linda Noskova will play doubles with Karolina Muchova.
Vondrousova won her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon last year, the first unseeded woman to win the singles title, but earlier this month she became the first defending Wimbledon women’s champion to exit in the first round for 30 years.
Other notable absences from the women’s tennis at the Games include world number three Aryna Sabalenka, Ons Jabeur and Emma Raducanu who turned down a wildcard place to represent Britain.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, editing by Ed Osmond)
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