Japanese sensation Naomi Osaka, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal said on Sunday that they remain keen to compete in the delayed Tokyo Olympics, and would be guided by what the health experts tell them.
Three-time Grand Slam champion Osaka admitted being worried by a recent poll that found 80% of the Japanese public were opposed to Tokyo hosting the event this year because of the pandemic.
“My concern would be the general safety of everyone else because you’re opening the country,” Osaka said.
The 23-year-old has been the poster girl of the 2020 Olympics and still hopes to represent Japan at her home Games.
“I missed out on the last one. Playing in Tokyo would be very special to me.”
World No. 2 Rafael Nadal echoed Osaka’s sentiments and hoped to play, but said health experts should have the final say.
“What we have to do is just follow the instructions of what the people who really have the right knowledge of all this stuff give to us,” he told reporters on Sunday.
World No. 1 Djokovic has played in three Olympics, winning a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games.
He too is keen to be in Tokyo. “I am personally planning to go for the Olympic Games. I’m really hoping that the Olympics will happen,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot of people obviously. Far more than a tennis tournament. It’s obviously not up to me to talk about organisation or what can be done, should be done, what will be done.”
