Saudi Arabia is heading to Tokyo 2020 with its largest ever Olympic Games delegation of athletes following 11 previous participations that began in 1976 in Montreal.
A total of 33 athletes, 31 male and two female, will represent the Kingdom in the Games, which start on July 23 and run until Aug. 8.
Of these, 22 make up the under-23 football squad, with the other 11 competitors taking part in nine other sports.
The number of sports the Kingdom will compete in also beats the previous high by a Saudi delegation, which was six at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
On Monday, judoka Tahani Al-Qahtani became the latest Saudi athlete to confirm her place in Tokyo, joining Sulaiman Hamad in the judo competition; Siraj Al-Saleem and Mahmoud Al-Ahmeed in weightlifting; Husein Alireza in rowing; Tarek Hamdi in karate; Youssef Bouarish in swimming; Ali Al-Khadrawi in table tennis; Saeed Al-Mutairi in shooting; and runners Yasmine Al-Dabbagh and Mazen Al-Yassin in athletics, as well as the 22 players who will represent the Saudi Olympic football team.
Saudi Arabia sending biggest ever Olympics delegation to Tokyo
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Saudi Arabia sending biggest ever Olympics delegation to Tokyo
- The 33, including the 22-man football squad, will compete in nine different sports, also a Saudi record
Siniakova ends Andreeva Indian Wells defense in third round
- Siniakova, a former doubles number one, will face either Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina or American Ashlyn Krueger for a place in the quarter-finals
INDIAN WELLS, United States: Unseeded Katerina Siniakova ended a frustrated Mirra Andreeva’s Indian Wells title defense on Monday, rallying for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over the eighth-ranked Russian.
The 18-year-old Andreeva had opened her repeat bid with an imperious 6-0, 6-0 demolition of Solana Sierra.
But she was in trouble early and often against 44th-ranked Siniakova in a rollercoaster contest that featured seven service breaks for each player and 43 break chances between them.
When she sailed a swinging volley long to surrender the second set, Andreeva threw her racquet in disgust.
She regrouped to break Siniakova for a 3-2 lead in the third, but Siniakova won the next four games.
The Czech saved a pair of break points in the final game before sealing the match with a shot that struck the net cord and dribbled over as Andreeva could only watch, disappointment sparking another outburst from the Russian as she departed the court.
Siniakova, a former doubles number one, will face either Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina or American Ashlyn Krueger for a place in the quarter-finals.
In other early matches, fifth-seeded American Jessica Pegula shook off a slow start to beat Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Pegula, coming off her fourth career WTA 1000 title at Dubai last month, fired 11 aces with just one double fault as she rallied for the win.
“I think today I had to kind of snap myself back and kind of lock in to not let that get away from me,” said Pegula, who said she was in danger of letting negativity and frustration get the better of her.
“I didn’t think I was playing bad. It was just letting a couple chances, couple breaks here and there (get away), maybe a couple shots that I could have been more aggressive on.”
Later on Stadium Court, world number two Iga Swiatek took on Greece’s Maria Sakkari — the woman she beat in the Indian Wells finals in 2022 and 2024.
Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, who lifted the Indian wells Trophy in 2023, played Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in the final match of the night.
