Add Australian Bernard Tomic to the list of men’s tennis players announcing Thursday they will skip the Rio Games. Austrian Dominic Thiem and Spaniard Feliciano Lopez bowed out earlier in the day.
In all, four of the top 23 players in the world have said they will not play in Rio.
No. 15 Thiem, No. 22 Tomic and No. 23 Lopez followed John Isner, the top-ranked American at No. 16 overall who announced his absence last month.
Tomic, a 23-year-old who was put on notice by a leading Australian Olympic official to clean up his behavior last week, said in a reported statement Thursday he had already committed to defend his title at a low-level ATP tour event in Mexico that takes place during the Olympics.
“On the basis of my extremely busy playing schedule and my own personal circumstances, I am regrettably unable to commit to this year’s tournament,” Tomic reportedly said in the statement. “I make this decision based on what is best for my tennis career.”
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