Marketa withdraws from Olympic Games

PARIS — Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Marketa Vondrousova has withdrawn from the Paris Olympic Games due to a hand injury, the Czech 25-year-old said.

The Czech tennis star 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,” Vondrousova added according to Reuters.

The 2023 Wimbledon champion, who lost to Belinda Bencic in the gold medal match three years ago, made her announcement on Instagram.

She had been expected to play singles as well as doubles with Karolina Muchova as a part of a Czech squad that also includes new Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova, Linda Noskova and Katerina Siniakova. 

A hip injury suffered in her match against Anna Kalinskaya at the ecotrans Ladies Open in Berlin disrupted the left-hander’s preparations to defend her historic 2023 title at the All England Club, where she became the first unseeded woman in the Open Era to win the title. On her return this year, she was beaten in the first round by Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.

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.

Vondrousova was the second woman in the Open Era after Stefanie Graf in 1994 to lose in the first round of Wimbledon the year after winning the title, and as a result, dropped from World No.6 to No.18 in last week’s post-Wimbledon PIF WTA Rankings. 

The Czech’s withdrawal means that two of the three Tokyo medalists will be on the sidelines for this year’s Games.

Bencic gave birth to her first child, daughter Bella, in April, and has been on maternity leave from the Hologic WTA Tour since the fall of last year.

Bronze medalist Elina Svitolina, who over the weekend announced the end of her coaching relationship with Raemon Sluiter, is still in the field.

In Tokyo, the unseeded Vondrousova defeated three seeded players — No.16 Kiki Bertens, No.2 Naomi Osaka, and No.4 Svitolina — en route to the gold-medal match. 

At the Livesport Prague Open, 16-year-old Laura Samson, doubles star Ena Shibahara and Liechtenstein’s Kathinka Von Deichmann all scored the first completed WTA main-draw wins of their careers.

Wild card Samson became the first player born in 2008 (or later) to win a WTA main-draw match, and she did it emphatically with a 6-0, 6-2 rout of qualifier Tara Wurth.

The No.634-ranked Czech teenager demonstrated impressive timing and pace off the ground in her tour-level debut, slamming 19 winners in total. She needed only 1 hour and 13 minutes to complete victory.

Samson has already made a name for herself at junior level, where she was ranked No.1 until last week.

She reached the US Open girls’ semi-finals last year, and was the Roland Garros girls’ runner-up in June. In 2024, she has also begun to transition to pro tournaments, winning three ITF W15s this year so far. Prague marks just the 11th pro event that Samson has contested.

Samson is one of four Czech players to have reached the last 16 on home soil this week. No.1 seed Linda Noskova, 19 and Dominika Salkova, 20, both advanced in straight sets over Katarina Zavatska and Zeynep Sonmez respectively.

Samson will take on the most decorated of her compatriots in Prague next, in the form of Katerina Siniakova. The No.2 seed battled to a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 win over qualifier Louisa Chirico.