American tennis star Coco Gauff decides to pull out of Tokyo Olympics

Teen American tennis star Coco Gough, ranked 25th in the world, will miss the Tokyo Olympics starting July 23 after testing positive for COVID-19. After reaching the French Open charter final and the fourth round of Wimbledon, Coco has jumped this year’s WTA rankings list. Coco posted a message on Twitter late Sunday that she was disappointed to be unable to take part in the Olympics.

Coco was to compete in the women’s singles at the Olympics and partner Nicole Melicher in the women’s doubles. The mixed doubles team was later to be renamed in Tokyo.

Coco wrote, I am very disappointed to share the news that I have been found corona positive and will not be able to play in the Olympic Games in Tokyo. It has always been a dream of mine to represent the USA at the Olympics, and I hope there will be many more opportunities for me to make it come true in the future.

Coco was to lead the 12-man US tennis team to the Olympics, which is the first Olympics in 25 years without Serena and Venus Williams.

Other members of the US team include Jennifer Brady, Jessica Pegula and Alison Riske in women’s singles, Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafo, Tennys Sandgren and Marcos Giron in men’s singles.

Other members of the team are Bethany Mattek-Sands, Rajeev Ram and Austin Kreijsek.