Tennis at the 2024 Summer Olympics

The tennis tournaments at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris ran from 27 July to 4 August at the Stade Roland Garros.[1] The event featured a total of 175 players across five medal events: singles and doubles for both men and women and mixed doubles.[2][3]

Tennis
at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad
Tennis pictogram for the 2024 Summer Olympics
VenueStade Roland Garros
Dates27 July – 4 August 2024
No. of events5 (2 men, 2 women, 1 mixed)
Competitors175 from 40+1 nations
← 2020
2028 →
Tennis at the 2024 Summer Olympics
Edition19th
SurfaceClay
Champions
Men's singles
 Novak Djokovic (SRB)
Women's singles
 Zheng Qinwen (CHN)
Men's doubles
 Matthew Ebden & John Peers (AUS)
Women's doubles
 Sara Errani & Jasmine Paolini (ITA)
Mixed doubles
 Kateřina Siniaková & Tomáš Macháč (CZE)
← 2020 · Summer Olympics · 2028 →

Similar to previous editions, the Paris 2024 format was set in a single-elimination tournament with the men's and women's singles draws consisting of 64 players. The tennis tournaments featured six rounds in the men's and women's singles, five in the men's and women's doubles (draw size of 32), and four in the mixed doubles (draw size of 16). The players and pairs advancing to the semifinal stage put themselves into medal contention with the two losing semifinalists competing for a bronze medal. All singles matches will be best of three sets with a standard tiebreak (first to seven points) in every set, including the final set.[4] In all doubles competitions, a match tiebreak (first to ten points) will be contested instead of a third set. The Paris 2024 event is the first Olympic clay court event since the Barcelona 1992 event was played at Tennis de la Vall d'Hebron.[4] A total of 10 NOC's won medals along with the Independent Athletes team. It was the second Olympic tournament to be played at a Grand Slam venue in the Open era and the first since the London 2012 event was staged at the Wimbledon Championships venue, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

Medal summary

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Men's singles tennis tournament podium

A total of fifteen medals were won by ten NOC's and the Independent Athletes team.[5]

Events

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Event Gold Silver Bronze
Men's singles Novak Djokovic
  Serbia
Carlos Alcaraz
  Spain
Lorenzo Musetti
  Italy
Men's doubles   Australia
Matthew Ebden
John Peers
  United States
Austin Krajicek
Rajeev Ram
  United States
Taylor Fritz
Tommy Paul
Women's singles Zheng Qinwen
  China
Donna Vekić
  Croatia
Iga Świątek
  Poland
Women's doubles   Italy
Sara Errani
Jasmine Paolini
  Individual Neutral Athletes
Mirra Andreeva
Diana Shnaider
  Spain
Cristina Bucșa
Sara Sorribes Tormo
Mixed doubles   Czech Republic
Kateřina Siniaková
Tomáš Macháč
  China
Wang Xinyu
Zhang Zhizhen
  Canada
Gabriela Dabrowski
Félix Auger-Aliassime

Medal table

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  *   Host nation (France)

RankNOCGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1  China1102
2  Italy1012
3  Australia1001
  Czech Republic1001
  Serbia1001
6  Spain0112
  United States0112
8  Croatia0101
  Individual Neutral Athletes0101
9  Canada0011
  Poland0011
Totals (10 entries)55515

Tournament summary

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In the women's singles, Zheng Qinwen beat Donna Vekić to become the first Chinese tennis player to win Olympic singles gold.[6] It was also China's second tennis gold medal after Li Ting and Sun Tiantian won the women's doubles in Athens in 2004. Zheng's gold medal followed an upset win in the semifinals over world #1 Iga Swiatek of Poland, the four-time and three-time defending French Open champion who had won 25 straight matches at Roland Garros.[7] Swiatek won bronze over Anna Karolína Schmiedlová.

In the men's singles, Novak Djokovic of Serbia overcame French Open champion Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz in straight sets after tiebreaks in both to win gold. It marked the first Olympic gold medal in his fifth Olympic Games for Djokovic, who had won a record 24 Grand Slam men's singles titles including three French Opens (2016, 2021 and 2023), as well as the first Olympic tennis gold medal for Serbia as well as his second medal after having won a bronze medal in Beijing 2008 men's singles. Djokovic also became just the fifth player to win a career singles Golden Slam consisting of all four majors and Olympic gold after Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams. Graf is the only player to record a Golden Slam in a calendar year after doing so in 1988, while Williams is the only player to have a career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles (with her sister Venus as her partner).[8] Nadal and Williams, together with former French world #1 Amélie Mauresmo, were also chosen among the torchbearers during the last leg of the Olympic torch relay during the opening ceremony despite not being French, and Djokovic beat Nadal in the second round. Lorenzo Musetti won bronze over Félix Auger-Aliassime in three sets.

Everything I felt in that moment when I won surpassed everything I thought or hoped that it would...Being on that court with the Serbian flag raising, singing the Serbian anthem, with the gold around my neck, I think nothing can beat that in terms of professional sport. It definitely stands out as the biggest sporting achievement I have had.

— Novak Djokovic after winning the men's singles gold medal[8]

In the men's doubles, Matthew Ebden and John Peers became the first Australian pair to win the event since the "Woodies" (Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde) in Atlanta in 1996, while the United States pairs took both silver and bronze. Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini won the women's doubles, while Kateřina Siniaková and Tomáš Macháč won the mixed doubles.

The event was also Andy Murray's last professional outing after winning gold in the London 2012 event at Wimbledon and in Rio de Janeiro four years later, where he was Great Britain's opening ceremony flagbearer, in addition to three Grand Slam singles titles and a Davis Cup with Great Britain.[9] It was also the last event for former world #1 Angelique Kerber, who had won three Grand Slam singles titles and been the silver medalist in Rio.[10]

Qualification

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To be eligible for Paris 2024, a tennis player must satisfy the key criteria to play on Davis Cup or Billie Jean King Cup teams. The qualification pathway for the singles tournaments is primarily based on the ATP and WTA rankings of 10 June 2024, with 56 players entering each of the men's and women's singles (limited to four per National Olympic Committee (NOC)).[11] Six of the remaining eight slots are attributed to the NOCs with no other qualified tennis players across five continental zones (two for the Americas and one each for the rest). The final two spots are reserved, one for the host nation France and the other for the previous Olympic gold medalist or Grand Slam champion.[11][12][13] In the men's and women's doubles tournaments, thirty-two places will offer for the highest-ranked teams with ten of them reserved for players in the top ten of the doubles rankings, who could select his or her partner from their NOC ranked in the top 300 of either singles or doubles. The remaining spots are attributed through the combined rankings with a preference given to the singles players once the total quota is filled. One team per gender is reserved for the host nation France if none has already become eligible otherwise.[11] With no quota places available for the mixed doubles, all teams will consist of players already entered in either the singles or doubles, including the top 15 combined ranking teams and the host nation France.[11]

Schedule

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Legend
R64 Round of 64 R32 Round of 32 R16 Round of 16 QF Quarter-finals SF Semi-finals BM Bronze medal match F Final
Schedule[14][15]
Date Sat 27 Sun 28 Mon 29 Tue 30 Wed 31 Thu 1 Fri 2 Sat 3 Sun 4
Start time 12:00 12:00 12:00 12:00 12:00 12:00 12:00 12:00 12:00
Men's singles R64 R32 R16 QF SF BM F
Men's doubles R32 R16 QF SF BM F
Women's singles R64 R32 R16 QF SF BM F
Women's doubles R32 R16 QF SF BM F
Mixed doubles R16 QF SF BM F

Participating nations

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There were 175 tennis athletes from 40 participating NOC's and the Individual Neutral Athlete team.[16]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Roland Garros to host Paris 2024 tennis". Sports Business Journal. 8 August 2022. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  2. ^ "Paris 2024 – Tennis". Paris 2024. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  3. ^ "Tennis at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games". NBC Olympics. 17 August 2022. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  4. ^ a b Lloyd, Owen (2 January 2023). "Men's singles tennis final at Paris 2024 to remain in best-of-three sets format". Inside the Games. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  5. ^ "Medal standings" (PDF). www.olympics.com/. Paris Organising Committee for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 4 August 2024. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
  6. ^ "Paris Olympics tennis: Zheng Qinwen wins women's singles gold for China". BBC Sport. British Broadcasting Corporation. 3 August 2024. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  7. ^ Carayol, Tumaini (1 August 2024). "Iga Swiatek's 25-match Roland Garros winning streak ended by Zheng Qinwen". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  8. ^ a b Lofthouse, Amy (4 August 2024). "Novak Djokovic beats Carlos Alcaraz to win Olympic tennis gold and seal 'Golden Slam'". BBC Sport. British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  9. ^ Jurejko, Jonathan (2 August 2024). "What next for Andy Murray after retirement?". BBC Sport. British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  10. ^ Harding, Jonathan (31 May 2024). "Olympics: Angelique Kerber's fairytale run over – DW – 07/31/2024". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
  11. ^ a b c d Vieira, Sheila (12 December 2022). "How to qualify for tennis at Paris 2024. The Olympics qualification system explained". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  12. ^ "Qualification System – Games of the XXXIII Olympiad – Tennis" (PDF). ITF. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  13. ^ "Paris 2024 Olympic Tennis Event Qualification System". ITF. 17 May 2022. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  14. ^ "Paris 2024 Olympic Competition Schedule – Tennis" (PDF). Paris 2024. pp. 77–78. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  15. ^ "Olympic Tennis Schedule | Paris 2024".
  16. ^ "Number of Entries by NOC" (PDF). www.olympics.com/. Paris Organising Committee for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 3 August 2024. Retrieved 3 August 2024.
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