Tennis Player Pulls Out of Olympics, Cites Lack of Crowds

What's an Olympics without fans? Not much to Nick Kyrgios. The Australian tennis player has pulled out of the upcoming Games following Thursday's announcement that fans will not be allowed in Tokyo due to the new coronavirus state of emergency there. "It's been my dream to represent Australia at the Olympics and I know I may never get that opportunity again," Kyrgios, one of 11 Australian tennis players named to the national team in June, wrote in a Thursday statement. "But I also know myself. The thought of playing in front of empty stadiums just doesn't sit right with me. It never has."

• But his health was a factor: Kyrgios had been forced to withdraw Saturday from a third-round Wimbledon match with an abdominal injury that affected his serve. ESPN quoted him as saying at the time, "I can't serve more than 120 [mph]. It's getting worse. I don't want to tear it and not be able to play for 12 years." In his statement, the 26-year-old wrote, "I wouldn't want to take the opportunity away from a healthy Aussie athlete ready to represent the country. I will also take all the time I need to get my body right."
• The current venues math: Tokyo is home to 25 of 42 Olympic venues listed on the Tokyo 2020 website. The remaining 17 are in seven other prefectures. Three of those—Chiba, Kanagawa, and Saitama—will not host fans, either, while three others—Miyagi, Fukushima, and Shizuoka—have opted to allow 50% capacity of venues up to a maximum of 10,000 spectators, per CNN.

(More Tokyo Olympics stories.)