Coco Gauff, Jennifer Brady lead US Olympic tennis team – NBC Connecticut

Coco Gauff and Jennifer Brady will lead a U.S. Olympic tennis team going to the Tokyo Games without one of the country’s two highest-ranked women or four top men, according to a roster obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

The list of players heading to Japan includes 17-year-old Gauff, Brady, runner-up in the 2021 Australian Open, Jessica Pegula and Alison Riske for the women’s singles, and Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafoe, Tennys Sandgren and Marcos Giron for the men’s singles.

Conspicuously absent: Serena and Venus Williams, the owners of nine Olympic medals together, in addition to their 30 total Grand Slam titles in singles and another 14 majors together in doubles.

Sofia Kenin, the Australian Open champion and second French Open in 2020, is currently the highest-ranked American woman, at number 6, but chose not to go to the Olympics.

That was a difficult decision, but I have spoken and discussed it with my agents, Kenin said after losing 6-2, 6-4 to American Madison Brengle in the second round of Wimbledon on Wednesday. I couldn’t take anyone with me and I definitely wanted someone.

The Tokyo Games were postponed a year ago due to the coronavirus pandemic and now cases of COVID-19 are on the rise in the host city. The Olympics open on July 23, less than two weeks after the end of Wimbledon.

Serena Williams, who is ranked No. 8, ruled herself out this weekend. She injured her right leg on Tuesday during her match at the All England Club and is out of the tournament.

Brady is No. 15 in the WTA rankings, Gauff a quarterfinalist at this year’s French Open is No. 23, Pegula No. 26 and Riske No. 29.

The top four American men in the ATP rankings Reilly Opelka, John Isner, Taylor Fritz and Sebastian Korda all decided not to participate in the Olympics, as did the sixth highest man in the country, Sam Querrey. Korda didn’t go with golf star sisters Nelly and Jessica Korda in Tokyo.

Instead, this week’s rankings of the men who signed up for singles are No. 52 Tommy Paul, No. 57 Frances Tiafoe, No. 66 Marcos Giron and No. 68 Tennys Sandgren. Tiafoe defeated the number 3 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, the runner-up of the French Open at Wimbledon on Monday.

It will be different Olympic Games than in recent years; it will go from there. That said, I feel like as an athlete I have to go at least once. So when I was given the option, I absolutely jumped on it,” said Giron. I understand why a lot of the other guys don’t go. But I’m excited and excited.”

Eligibility was based on the June 14 ranking, the day after the French Open ended.

It’s in a pandemic, which probably won’t be as enjoyable as the past. And I don’t think it’s a big priority for American tennis players. It doesn’t have as much priority as (in) some other countries, Querrey said on Wednesday after eliminating number 8 seed Pablo Carreo Busta at Wimbledon.

For most Americans, if you play in it, great. But I think for me I’d rather play (tour events in) Cabo, Atlanta, DC. I’d rather win Indian Wells than win an Olympic gold, and I think a lot of the other guys feel the same way,” he said. “Just not a big priority in the calendar.

The International Tennis Federation was due to announce the participants of each country’s Summer Games on Thursday.

According to the US roster, the rest of the team includes combinations of Gauff with Nicole Melichar, and Pegula with Bethanie Mattek-Sands for the women’s doubles, and Tiafoe with Rajeev Ram, and Sandgren with Austin Krajicek for the men’s doubles.

For the Tokyo Paralympics, which begin on August 24, the US tennis team is led by eight-time medalist David Wagner. Also listed: Bryan Barten, Dana Mathewson, Emmy Kaiser, Shelby Baron, Casey Ratzlaff, and Conner Stroud.

___ AP Sportswriter Steven Wine in Miami contributed to this report.

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More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports