{"id":69491,"date":"2021-05-10T20:43:51","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T20:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=69491"},"modified":"2021-05-10T21:01:34","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T21:01:34","slug":"japanese-stars-huge-doubt-over-tokyo-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=69491","title":{"rendered":"Japanese star's huge doubt over Tokyo Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

By AP —<\/strong><\/em> Japanese tennis player Kei Nishikori has doubts about whether the IOC and local organisers are doing enough to plan for a worst-case scenario of "hundreds" or "thousands" of coronavirus cases at the Tokyo Olympics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Or whether it's even still feasible to hold the Games when a state of emergency has been extended in Tokyo and other parts of Japan because of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

"I don't know what they are thinking, and I don't know how much they are thinking about how they are going to make a bubble, because this is not 100 people like these tournaments," Nishikori said after winning his first-round match at the Italian Open.<\/p>\n

"It's 10,000 people in the village. So I don't think it's easy, especially what's happening right now in Japan. It's not doing good. Well, not even (just) Japan. You have to think all over the world right now."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nishikori is one of a growing number of tennis players expressing reservations about the games.<\/p>\n

Serena Williams suggested she won't go to Japan if coronavirus protocols mean she can't bring her three-year-old daughter with her.<\/p>\n

"I haven't spent 24 hours without her, so that kind of answers the question itself," Williams said. "There is this pandemic and there is so much to think about."<\/p>\n

And on Sunday, second-ranked Naomi Osaka sounded conflicted<\/a> about the Games' status.<\/p>\n

"Of course I would say I want the Olympics to happen, because I'm an athlete and that's sort of what I've been waiting for my entire life," Osaka said. <\/p>\n

"A lot of unexpected things have happened and if it's putting people at risk, and if it's making people very uncomfortable, then it definitely should be a discussion, which I think it is as of right now."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Japan has attributed 11,000 deaths to COVID-19, better than many countries, but poor for Asia. The virus and its spreading variants are taxing Japan's health-care system with only two per cent of the population vaccinated.<\/p>\n

Public sentiment in Japan continues to run against holding the Olympics in the middle of a pandemic. Between 60-80 per cent of Japanese people in polls have said the Olympics should be cancelled or postponed.<\/p>\n

But local organisers and the International Olympic Committee insist the Games, which were already postponed by a year, will open as planned on July 23.<\/p>\n

"I know you still have two, three more months. It's tough to really say right now," Nishikori said, adding that he thought organisers should "hold" on making a decision for now.<\/p>\n

The 45th-ranked Nishikori, a former US Open finalist and Japan's top male player, said that if the Olympics were opening now, he thinks it would be "really tough" to hold the competition.<\/p>\n

"If you think only about athletes, I think you can do it," he said. "If you can make a good bubble, maybe you can do it, but there is some risk, too."<\/p>\n

"(What happens) if there is 100 cases in the village … (or) thousands?" Nishikori asked. "You have to really discuss how you can play really safely."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By AP — Japanese tennis player Kei Nishikori has doubts about whether the IOC and local organisers are doing enough to plan for a worst-case […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69491"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69493,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69491\/revisions\/69493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}