World No. 1 Novak Djokovic will start the subsequent leg of his quest to turn out to be the primary male participant to full the Golden Slam when he takes on Bolivia’s 139th-ranked Hugo Dellien on the Tokyo Olympics within the opening spherical. The Serbian will want to win in Tokyo after which the US Open later this 12 months to obtain the feat that has thus far solely been achieved by Germany`s Steffi Graf in 1988.
Djokovic, 34, accomplished the third leg in direction of reaching the Golden Slam when he added the Wimbledon title to his Australian Open and Roland Garros triumphs in 2021 to tie rivals Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal on the boys’s report 20 titles. Players from 46 nations will compete for Olympic glory because the competitors begins on Saturday on the Ariake Tennis Park.
Home favorite Naomi Osaka meets Zheng Saisai of China within the opening spherical of the ladies’s matches. World No. 2 Osaka has not performed since she give up the French Open in May following her first-round match in Paris.
She walked out of the claycourt Grand Slam after being fined and threatened with disqualification for refusing to attend necessary post-match press conferences over psychological well being points and in addition skipped Wimbledon later. Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam winner, will probably be a heavy favorite to triumph on the hardcourts in Tokyo with all her majors approaching the identical floor.
.@naomiosaka has arrived #Tokyo2020 #UnitedByEmotion | #StrongerTogether pic.twitter.com/zpxTqkbDTk
— #Tokyo2020 (@Tokyo2020) July 22, 2021
In the ladies’s singles draw on the Olympics, the 23-year-old Japanese could have to take care of world primary Ash Barty, who makes her Games debut against Spain’s Forty eighth-ranked Sara Sorribes Tormo.
Britain’s Andy Murray, who’s bidding for an unprecedented third consecutive Olympic males’s singles title, will function in a blockbuster opening spherical conflict against Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, who’s ranked fifteenth.
Men’s second seed Daniil Medvedev will probably be competing in Tokyo as a consultant of the Russian Olympic Committee after the nation was stripped of its flag and anthem for doping offences. The world No. 2 will face Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik, ranked thirty seventh on the planet, within the first spherical.
Medvedev’s compatriot, Andrey Rublev, drew Kei Nishikori, who will probably be Japan`s foremost medal hope in males’s singles.
(with Reuters inputs)
