Elena Rybakina has withdrawn from the women’s tennis competition at the Paris Olympics.
The world number four was set to be the third seed for the event following Aryna Sabalenka’s own withdrawal. France’s Caroline Garcia now moves into her seeded slot in the draw.
Alternate Daria Saville of Australia moves into the main draw and will play China’s Qinwen Zheng in the first round.
Rybakina has reached the quarter-finals twice on the clay at Roland Garros, where the Olympic competition will be held, in 2021 and earlier this year.
She would have met Naomi Osaka or Angelique Kerber if she had won her first-round match against Jacqueline Cristian.
Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, missed out on a medal in Tokyo in 2021, finishing fourth after losing to Elina Svitolina in the bronze-medal match.
The 25-year-old has also withdrawn from the mixed doubles draw where she was slated to partner Alexander Bublik. They have been replaced by Nadia Podoroska and Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina.
Rybakina becomes the latest in a number of high-profile names to pull out of the competition on the women’s side including Ons Jabeur, Marketa Vondrousova and Madison Keys.
Jannik Sinner, Andrey Rublev and Holger Rune have all withdrawn from the men’s competition.
