With a lack of points, questionable conditions and health concerns, the Olympics continue to lose players. Today, Stan Wawrinka officially withdrew from the Rio games due to a back injury.

“I am very sad because after Beijing and London I would have liked to experience my third Olympic Games in Brazil,” Wawrinka said. “Unfortunately that will now not be possible.”

Wawrinka and Roger Federer, who also withdrew, won doubles gold in …

Rafael Nadal is already in Rio but questions linger about the former gold medallists’s participation. After practice yesterday, Nadal was seeing leaving the court with an ice pack on the injured left rest.

And later, Uncle Toni said a decision would be made on Tuesday on what events, if any, Nadal would play.

“His wrist is much better. We try to train normally. We played at a good level, with great intensity,” …

Novak Djokovic shook off a disappointing Wimbledon loss to Sam Querrey by coming into a congested summer hardcourt season fresher and better prepared, and so far so good after his 30th Masters title yesterday at the Roger Cup in Toronto beating Kei Nishikori 76(2), 63.

“Everything in life happens for a reason,” Djokovic said Sunday. “The fact that I have lost in the first week of Wimbledon allowed me …

Novak Djokovic — rusty, aggravated, injured — is far and away the best player in the world.

The world No. 1 showed poor footwork, a strange lack of balance, shrouded injury, and a lot of rust in his first tournament since Wimbledon. In the absence of world No. 2 Andy Murray and injured former No. 1s Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, he still ambled across the finish line, in the final …

Madison Keys is ready and willing to be a regular Top 10 resident and big title winner — it’s just that her fellow top players aren’t ready to let her.

A tired Simona Halep, who entered the Rogers Cup on a winning streak and reached both the singles and doubles finals in Montreal, summoned her scampering best to damper the power of Keys in a 7-6(2), 6-3 win in the Sunday …

The year of Olympic weirdness impacting the WTA calendar continues this week. The same week as Rio hosts the Olympic tennis event, the WTA hosts a competing event in Brazil, and an event in China that sees a list of seeds ranked lower than some top tier ITF-level events.

Here’s the ugly:

JIANGXI WOMEN’S TENNIS OPEN
Nanchang, China; Surface: hard

Seeds: Kurumi Nara, Francesca Schiavone, Donna Vekic, Zhang Kailin, Vania King, Risa Ozaki, Han …

The John Isner Open, otherwise known as the BB&T Atlanta Open, kicks off Monday when the three-time Atlanta champion will defend his title at a tournament that often seems tailor-made for his raising the annual trophy.

The No. 16-ranked Isner, who skipped the Olympics citing the lack of ATP points and his desire to defend in Atlanta, is joined as the top seed by fellow seeds Nick Kyrgios, Kevin Anderson, Alexandr …

Boy, what a crappy couple of match today in Toronto. No real surprises with the results, per se, but there really wasn’t much drama or intrigue at all, when there should have been.

First, it was Stan Wawrinka against Kei Nishikori in what seemed like an even matchup. But at the start it wasn’t. Stan bullied his way out to a big lead of the weary looking Nishikori. And the Swiss …

With no Serena who’s is in her customary post-Wimbledon hibernation, the tournaments like the Canadian Open in Montreal are there for the taking. And tomorrow we’ll have a new champion in either Simona Halep or Madison Keys.

It’s Halep’s second trip to the Canadian final and she hopes this time to not only complete the match but win after retiring last to Belina Bencic. And she’ll be the slight favorite …

It’s not pretty, but world No. 1 Novak Djokovic continues to find ways to win at the Rogers Cup in Toronto.

On Friday it was with some help from Tomas Berdych, who found a way to lose up, 6-3 in the first-set tiebreak. Berdych lost five straight points and the set. And Djokovic eventually prevailed 7-6(6), 6-4.

“I was very fortunate to get away with the first set,” Djokovic said. “The second …

Two Top 5 players, an American on the rise, and a surprise Slovak qualifier make up the semifinals at the Rogers Cup in Montreal after quarterfinal play on Friday.

No. 2 seed Angie Kerber and No. 5 Simona Halep will compete in one of the blockbuster semis after Halep came from a set down to beat former world No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.

“It was very tough, I feel really …

With the busy schedule this summer, Novak Djokovic admitted he too thought about skipping the Canadian Masters in Toronto just like Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal did. But an early loss at Wimbledon made the trip more appealing and he says it’s perfect preparation for Rio.

“I did consider it, I think, as most of the other top players,” Djokovic said Wednesday. “But under the circumstances that I was …

He’s young, yes, but he’s playing a lot of tennis this year. And that’s Dominic Thiem. August hasn’t even started the 22-year-old has already played 20 events and 63 matches.

And after Kitzbuhel on clay last week, he had to retire from Toronto during his match Wednesday with Kevin Anderson due to a hip injury.

Thiem isn’t scheduled to play the Olympics, so he’ll take a break. But he agrees that maybe …

One of the new faces on the women’s tour this year has been Daria Kasatkina. The 19-year-old Russian was put in the spotlight at the Australian Open when she faced Serena Williams in the third round.

Since then, she’s kept improving reached the quarterfinals at Indian Wells and the third rounds at the French and Wimbledon where she pushed Venus Williams to 10-8 in the third.

Now ranked No. 33, in her …

Why the sudden surge from Gael Monfils this summer? Maybe it’s his improved serving. The Frenchman has mirrored Andy Roddick powerful serve (they both had the same coach at one time) but now he’s added more spacing at the start between his feet.

And the results? He’s on an 8-match win streak after his ATP 500 title in Washington title and has now reached his second Canadian Open quarterfinal.

“My motion, the …