All you need to know about tennis at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games; Olympic tennis event will be held on clay at the Roland Garros stadium; tennis to run from Saturday July 27 to Sunday August 4; Andy Murray set to make final appearance before retirement
Monday 29 July 2024 08:37, UK
A packed Olympic schedule will feature tennis in the first half of the Paris 2024 Games, where five gold medals will be up for grabs.
Dovetailing into an already eventful European clay and grass season, 41 nations will be represented in the tennis event, with 184 players competing across the five events (men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles).
The singles events will comprise of a 64-player draw, with a 32-team draw for the doubles events. The mixed doubles will be made up of 16 entries.
ITF places were awarded to former Olympic Champions including two-time singles gold medallist Andy Murray (Great Britain) and doubles gold medallist Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland), together with singles and doubles gold medallist Rafael Nadal (Spain).
Australian Open champion and men's world No 1 Jannik Sinner was leading the pack in the men's draw before withdrawing due to tonsilitis, while Roland Garros champion and women's world No 1 Iga Swiatek is among the top names in the women's draw.
Grand Slam champions Novak Djokovic (Serbia), Carlos Alcaraz (Spain), Coco Gauff (USA) and Elena Rybakina are also confirmed on the entry list.
Returning to defend their Olympic titles will be Alexander Zverev (Germany), Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic (Croatia) and Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova (Czech Republic).
Roland Garros, the home of the French Open, will host tennis at Paris 2024, so the players will need to readapt to the clay surface.
It's not the first time tennis has been held at a Grand Slam venue as Wimbledon was used for London 2012.
The WTA and ATP format that's seen outside of Grand Slams is implemented at the Olympics.
Singles matches are best-of-three sets, while doubles are also best-of-three sets but the final set is just a tie-break, which is first to 10 points.
Top seed Djokovic could face long-time rival Nadal in the second round of the men's singles. The draw pitted Djokovic against Australian Matthew Ebden and Nadal faces Hungarian Marton Fucsovics, with the winners of those matches meeting in round two.
Andy Murray, who is retiring after the tournament, announced his withdrawal from the men's singles ahead of the draw but will face Japan's Daniel Taro and Kei Nishikori as he plays alongside Dan Evans in the men's doubles.
Evans faces Morocco's Moez Echargui in the singles, while British No 1 Jack Draper starts against Nishikori in the single.
Cameron Norrie will play Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor in the first round and faces a possible second-round clash with No 2 seed and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz.
In the women's singles, British No 1 Katie Boulter takes on Slovakia's Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
Top seed Iga Swiatek of Poland faces Romania's Irina-Camelia Begu, while USA flag-bearer and No 2 seed Coco Gauff has been drawn against Australia's Ajla Tomljanovic.
Germany's Angelique Kerber, who is also retiring after the Olympics, plays against fellow multiple Grand Slam-winner Naomi Osaka of Japan.
Boulter is also competing in the women's doubles alongside Heather Watson and they have been drawn against Kerber and Laura Siegemund. Watson, competing in her fourth Olympics, will also feature in the mixed doubles alongside Joe Salisbury.
Doubles specialist Salisbury is seeded fifth alongside Neal Skupski in the men's doubles and they face Czech duo Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek in the first round.
The British duo are in the same quarter of the draw as Spain's star pairing of Nadal and Alcaraz, who begin their campaign against Argentine sixth seeds Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni.
Players will have met their national federations' Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup participation requirements, along with any exemptions requested. The ATP and WTA rankings of June 10 were used for entry.
There is a limit of four singles players per gender per country, and up to two doubles teams per event, with a maximum of six players per gender per country in total.
For men's and women's doubles, the top 24 teams were selected on a combined singles or doubles ranking, with top-10 doubles players eligible for direct entry with any partner with a top-300 ranking.
Entries for the mixed doubles will be determined from those players participating in singles or doubles.
Russian and Belarusian athletes are not permitted to compete in this year's Olympic Games, but former US Open champion Daniil Medvedev is part of a contingent of Russian tennis players who will compete under the IOC flag.
Men's Singles: Cameron Norrie, Jack Draper, Dan Evans
Women's Singles: Katie Boulter
Men's Doubles: Joe Salisbury/Neal Skupski, Dan Evans/Andy Murray
Women's Doubles: Katie Boulter/Heather Watson
Not everyone will be heading back over the English Channel to Paris. Among some of the big names who have decided to pull out include two-time Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka, Tunisia's Ons Jabeur, and Great Britain's Emma Raducanu.
Sabalenka struggled with illness at Roland Garros, and withdrew from Wimbledon with a shoulder injury while Jabeur cited the difficulties in transitioning from grass back to clay, ahead of the hard court season.
Raducanu also rejected the offer of a place as a Grand Slam champion, preferring to prioritise the hard court preparations for the US Open.
The Olympics will be the last time we see Murray, who confirmed the Paris Games would be his "last ever tennis tournament" in the build-up.
Murray made his final Wimbledon appearance earlier this month and had previously said it would be "fitting" to end his career at the All-England Club or the Olympics.
He announced his decision to withdraw from the singles the Thursday prior to the start of this year's Games to concentrate on the men's doubles with Dan Evans.
The 37-year-old is the only tennis player with two singles golds after winning in London 2012 and Rio 2016. He also won silver in the mixed doubles with Laura Robson at the 2012 Olympics.
In the run-up to the final Grand Slam of 2024 - the US Open - you can watch all of the biggest tennis stars in action live on Sky Sports as they compete across the hard-court season.
Watch the WTA and ATP Tours throughout 2024 on Sky Sports Tennis. Stream Sky Sports Tennis and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership. No contract, cancel anytime.
