The IOC invited eight high Russian tennis gamers plus Aryna Sabalenka and Victoria Azarenka from Belarus on Thursday to compete as impartial athletes on the Paris Olympics — although some already declined the anticipated supply.
The Russian males invited to compete within the Olympic event at Roland Garros from July 27-August 4 are No. 5 Daniil Medvedev, No. 6 Andrey Rublev, Karen Khachanov and Roman Safiullin.
The Russian ladies — Daria Kasatkina, Liudmila Samsonova, Ekaterina Aleksandrova and Mirra Andreeva — are ranked presently from No. 14 to 24, respectively.
Sabalenka, a two-time Australian Open champion, already mentioned she’s going to skip the Olympics to keep away from switching from Wimbledon on grass, again to clay on the Olympics, then to laborious courts in August forward of the U.S. Open. Rublev has reportedly cited well being causes to not go.
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Tennis is the most recent of the Olympic sports activities to have invites to Paris confirmed as a part of a vetting course of to let some athletes from Russia and its army ally Belarus compete with impartial standing in particular person sports activities throughout the invasion of Ukraine.
The Worldwide Olympic Committee is overseeing vetting to dam athletes who expressed help for the Russian invasion or had ties to sports activities golf equipment linked to the army or state safety companies.
Russia and Belarus already are excluded from workforce sports activities on the Paris Video games that open July 26.
The IOC introduced this month {that a} first spherical of 14 Russians and 11 Belarusians had been eligible and invited to Paris, together with in biking, weightlifting and wrestling. Some invites have been declined.
On Thursday, two athletes in rowing and two in taking pictures from Belarus had been invited to compete in Paris, although none in fashionable pentathlon. Russia didn’t have entry quota locations in these three sports activities.
It’s nonetheless unclear what number of Russian athletes will compete on the Olympics. The IOC already barred people who do from participating within the opening ceremony parade of athletes scheduled on boats crusing alongside the River Seine.