The Olympics is a destination for every player, and to win is a dream. It’s the rarest of the rare chances that the Spanish Olympic team would ever get to see. The Paris Olympics is going to be the last one for the legend, Rafael Nadal, and the first for Carlos Alcaraz. And as much as it would be thrilling to play against them, it might be more fun to cheer for them when they belong to your team. However, some may be forced to skip the moment due to injury, such as Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. But the recent twist came at the Atlanta Open. Making everyone think: Is his injury a ruse?

Fokina withdrew from Wimbledon and the Paris Olympics, citing injury concerns. However, that was a few weeks ago. Wimbledon is over, and the Olympics is ~3 days away, and the player is far away from Paris at Atlanta. Now the question arises, if he was back on the court, why not play the Olympics? And if he is still recovering, then why does the draw at Atlanta feature his name?

Journalist and tennis commentator, José Morgado, confirmed his presence at the ATP 250 event, set to begin as the Olympics proceed. Sharing the screenshot of the draw, he said,  “Atlanta tomorrow. Surprised to see Davidovich Fokina, who missed Wimbledon and said he would miss the Olympics due to injury (was in the original list). Now he is playing tournament before the Olympics after all 🤷🏻‍♂️.” 

The Olympics is a quadrennial event, and when it’s close to your home, it’s all the more special, as it’s easy for the family and fans to come and cheer. For Spanish people, it would be a chance to give their legend a beautiful goodbye, as Paris is in the EU domain. And even if all the reasons concerning the legends and the torchbearers are kept aside, it seems that tennis fans are unable to digest that Fokina would choose ATP 250 over the Paris Olympics. As this user stated the current scenario, “Davidovich resigned from the Olympic Games due to injury and now appears with a Wild Card in Atlanta 🤦‍♂️”

Fokina is not the only tennis player to bear the burn of tennis fans’ speculation about skipping Paris. Emma Raducanu and Aryna Sabalenka have gone through similar grinding. However, Sabalenka is recovering from injury, as she regularly updates her followers on her recovery. However, Fokina has to go through some grilling as they question his motive. Some thought it was the prize money, as they said, “He probably had 125,000 reasons….”

While some other tennis fans looked for some more reasons for such a controversial decision. What else could tempt the Spanish tennis player to fly to the USA? This user had another supportive suggestion for it, “Needing some ranking points I would assume.” Fokina currently stands as World no.43, way below the hot young gun, Carlos Alcaraz at World No.3. While Nadal stands in his own league after winning 22 grand slam titles.

Some tennis fans thought that all World no 43 needed was better management concerning his schedule on the tennis circuit. They said, “Needs better management.” Rightly so, no one would want to trample on the Olympics dream without very good reasoning. Hopefully, Fokina has it to satisfy himself as he sees his compatriots play in a few days on the clay court of Paris.

Moreover, Atlanta itself is facing a grim reality, as this year is the last year for the tournament before it’s shut down in 2025. Maybe Fokina just wanted to enjoy the American crowd in Atlanta before trying again for the Olympics at the Los Angeles edition in 2028!