Reigning Olympic tennis gold medalist Monica Puig will miss the Tokyo Games and the rest of the season after having surgery on her right shoulder.
Puig, who became the first athlete to win gold for Puerto Rico in any sport at an Olympics with her triumph at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games,
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CPyDfdfplGy/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet posted on her Instagram account Sunday that she had a second operation to repair her rotator cuff and biceps tendon.
She said the procedure was "about a week ago."
"It was with a heavy heart that I took this decision. Obviously my team and I are thinking long term and prolonging my career for as many years as possible and hoping to play in the Paris 2024 Olympics. And that was one of the reasons that led to this decision," Puig said. "The second reason was obviously that nobody likes to play with pain, and the pain was just too unbearable to spend more than 10 minutes on the court. And that is something that I struggled with as I started my return to the tennis courts."
The 27-year-old Puig has not competed on tour since a first-round loss at Roland Garros last October against 2012 French Open runner-up Sara Errani. That was Puig's fourth loss in a row, including a first-round exit at the U.S. Open in September, too.
