AFP, Tokyo
Novak Djokovic launches his quest for Olympic tennis glory on day one of the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games on Saturday as Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar goes for one of 11 gold medals on offer.
Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic cauldron in Friday's opening ceremony at an eerily empty stadium after the coronavirus forced organisers to ban spectators at all but a handful of venues.
Games chiefs will be desperate to shift the focus to the sporting action from the pandemic, which forced a one-year postponement and has dominated the build-up to the start of the event.
"Today is a moment of hope," Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said at the low-key opening ceremony, which unfolded in front of fewer than 1,000 VIPs and several thousand athletes.
"Yes, it is very different from what all of us had imagined. But let us cherish this moment because finally we are all here together."
But the virus cast a fresh shadow when German Olympic chiefs announced cyclist Simon Geschke had tested positive for coronavirus, forcing him out of the men's road race.
And Covid-19 claimed the opening game of the Olympic beach volleyball tournament, with Czech pair Marketa Nausch Slukova and Barbora Hermannova forced to withdraw.
More than 20 sports from archery to weightlifting start on Saturday.
Djokovic had cast doubt over whether he would participate because of the strict virus protocols and lack of crowds, but the possibility of the Golden Slam -- winning all four majors and the Olympics in the same year -- proved impossible to resist.
"Without the key element of any sports events, the crowds, the fans, that energy, it's different, but it is still the Olympic Games," said the world number one.
