Who's qualified for tennis at the Paris 2024 Olympics? When did it start? Was this Andy Murray's final tournament?
Updated 07/08/2024 at 20:48 GMT+1
The tennis event at the Paris 2024 Olympics saw some of the top stars from the ATP and WTA tours compete for medals on clay at Roland-Garros, the home of the French Open. When did the tennis event start? Who qualified and who played? What's was format? We answer all the key questions about tennis at the Paris Olympic Games, which was live on discovery+.
Fans go wild as Alcaraz and Nadal walk out to begin Olympic doubles campaign
Video credit: TNT Sports
The tennis tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics saw a total of eight gold medals up for grabs across five events.
Among those in the hunt to win gold were Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic.
World No. 1 Jannik Sinner pulled out of the Olympics with tonsillitis.
Roland-Garros great Rafael Nadal of Spain competed at what could be his final Olympic Games and was beaten in the singles by great rival Djokovic.
Two-time gold medallist Andy Murray had already confirmed that this was his final tournament as a professional before the games.
His time at Paris 2024 ended in the men's doubles quarter-finals.
When did the tennis event at Paris 2024 Olympics start?
The Olympic tennis event started on July 27 and finished on August 4.
It was played on clay at Roland-Garros, the home of the French Open.
The tennis event fell two weeks after Wimbledon, which is played on grass, and three weeks before the US Open on hard courts.
Who is competing in the tennis at Paris 2024?
The cut-off date for qualification via ranking was on June 10, the day after the French Open finished.
The 56 highest-ranked singles players on the ATP and WTA tours on June 10 were offered places, with a maximum of four per country.
The official entry lists for the singles and men's and women's doubles was confirmed by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
Alcaraz and Nadal linked up to represent Spain in the men's doubles but bowed out in the quarter-finals.
- Nadal, Alcaraz to play doubles together in Paris
- Djokovic named in Serbia team despite injury concerns
Djokovic was named in Serbia's tennis squad for the Games.
The world No. 2, whose best Olympic result prior to Paris was winning bronze in 2008, returned from knee surgery at Wimbledon.
Djokovic banished his Olympic demons and took gold in the men's singles.
Who represented Great Britain in tennis?
The 2024 Paris Olympics was Murray's swansong, but plenty of other Brits were in action to.
Murray, despite previously expressing some doubts, featured alongside Katie Boulter and Heather Watson.
Murray played in the men's doubles with partner Dan Evans but their campaign came to an end in the quarter-finals, and Boulter and Watson were also knocked out in the same fashion.
Emma Raducanu, as revealed by Great Britain's head of Olympics tennis Ian Bates, turned down the chance of a wild card, offered to former major champions.
"I have had various conversations with Emma over the last couple of weeks and a slightly longer period where it’s very clear how much being part of a British team at an Olympics would mean to her," said Bates.
"I think she feels this isn’t going to be the right timing for her for this summer.
"She’s hopefully got many Olympics ahead of her. I'm very comfortable with the decision that she’s made."
Did Russian and Belarusian players compete?
The ITF has confirmed that Russian and Belarusian players were allowed to compete at Paris 2024 as neutral athletes.
Some individual athletes from Russia and Belarus were permitted to compete in Paris despite the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Daniil Medvedev and Mirra Andreeva were among those competing from Russia but didn't make it past the third and first round, respectively,y in the singles.
Andrey Rublev and Daria Kasatkina did not feature, while world No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka said she would not be playing in Paris due to the physical demands of switching from grass back to clay.
"It's too much for the scheduling. I made the decision to take care of my health. It's too much of changing the surface."
What was the tennis schedule at Paris 2024?
The draw for the tennis event at the Paris 2024 Olympics took place on July 25 at 10am UK time, with the first day of the tennis following on Saturday, July 27.
The singles finals was held on the weekend of August 3.
Play started at 11am UK time every day, with Court Philippe-Chatrier also having a session beginning at 6pm UK time from July 27 to August 2.
Paris 2024 Olympics tennis schedule
- Thursday, July 25: Draw
- Saturday, July 27: Men’s and women’s singles first round, men’s and women’s doubles first round
- Sunday, July 28: Men’s and women’s singles first round, men’s and women’s doubles first round
- Monday, July 29: Men’s and women’s singles second round, men’s and women’s doubles second round, mixed doubles first round
- Tuesday, July 30: Men’s singles second round, women’s singles third round, men’s doubles quarter-finals, women’s doubles second round and quarter-finals, mixed doubles first round
- Wednesday, July 31: Men’s singles third round, women’s singles quarter-finals, men’s doubles semi-finals, women’s doubles quarter-finals, mixed doubles quarter-finals
- Thursday, August 1: Men’s singles quarter-finals, women’s singles semi-finals, women’s doubles semi-finals, mixed doubles semi-finals
- Friday, August 2: Men’s singles semi-finals, women’s singles bronze medal match, men’s doubles bronze medal match, mixed doubles bronze medal match, mixed doubles final
- Saturday, August 3: Women's singles final, men’s singles bronze medal match, men’s doubles final
- Sunday, August 4: Men's singles final, women’s doubles bronze medal match, women’s doubles final
What’s the Olympic tennis format?
The men’s and women’s singles were both 64-player draws.
The men’s and women’s doubles featured 32 teams and mixed doubles had 16 teams.
All singles matches were best-of-three sets with a seven-point tie-breaker in the third set.
The doubles matches were also best-of-three sets but a match tie-break was contested instead of a third set.
Are there ranking points at the Olympics?
There were no ranking points on offer for players at the Olympics.
Who are the defending Olympic champions?
Belinda Bencic won gold for Switzerland at the delayed Tokyo 2020, while Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova triumphed for Czech Republic in the women’s doubles.
Germany’s Alexander Zverev won the men’s singles event and Croatia’s Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic took doubles gold, but were knocked out in the first round of Paris 2024.
The mixed doubles was won by Russian pair Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Rublev at the last Olympics.
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discovery+ is the streaming home of the Olympic Games, and the only place you can watch every moment of Paris 2024 this summer.
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