TOKYO (Reuters) – The Dutch men’s doubles team have withdrawn from the Tokyo Games after one of the pair, Jean-Julien Rojer, tested positive for COVID-19, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) said.
Rojer is the first tennis player, and the sixth member of the Dutch Olympic delegation, to test positive so far. The others include a skateboarder, a taekwondo fighter, a rower and two staff of the rowing team.
“Sadly enough the doctor called me this morning (to say) that my test was positive,” said Rojer, who had been staying outside the Olympic village.
“I don’t know what to say. I’m so terribly sorry for everyone on the team. I did everything I could not to get infected beforehand and here as well. I have no idea how this came about.”
Rojer and his partner Wesley Koolhof, who were scheduled to play in the second round on Monday afternoon, had been placed in isolation, the ITF said.
Their opponents, Marcus Daniell and Michael Venus of New Zealand, will receive a walkover to the quarter-finals.
Rojer left the Netherlands on July 17 and had been tested for COVID-19 daily after arriving in Tokyo, the country’s Olympic committee said in a statement.
“This continues to be a shock every time. And the realisation that it’s over for the athletes” who tested positive, said Dutch Chef de Mission Pieter van den Hoogenband.
“We’re supporting them and try to accommodate their situation as good as possible.”
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly and Daniel Leussink; Writing by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman/Peter Rutherford)
