Top 10 tennis players who will participate at the Paris Olympics

Tokyo Games gold medalist Alexander Zverev will play at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Tennis first featured at the first modern Olympiad in 1896 at Athens. It was absent from the Olympics between 1924 and 1968. The sport returned as a spectator event at the 1968 Mexico and 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. It did not return as a medal sport until the 1988 Seoul Games.

Since then, some of the sport’s biggest names have turned up to represent their nations at the Games. Several tennis legends have taken medals home, including Rafael Nadal (2008 singles and 2016 doubles gold), Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka (2008 doubles gold) and sisters Venus and Serena Williams, with eight gold medals between them.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, the men’s and women’s singles draws will feature 64 players, 32 in doubles and 16 in mixed doubles. The draws are to take place on Thursday, 25th July and the event itself will run from 27th July until 4th August. The venue is the Stade Roland Garros in Paris.

Some of the top names gracing the clay courts at Roland-Garros, also the French Open venue, are:

10. Alexander Zverev

Alexander Zverev was the singles gold medal winner at the 2020 Olympics and will return to Paris in hope of taking the podium’s top step once again. Tokyo was the German’s first Olympics, which ended with him clutching the gold after defeating Russian Karen Khachanov.

Zverev will be optimistic about his chances after reaching the French Open final in the second week of June. He is currently playing at the Hamburg Open in his native country. He is the defending champion at the clay-court event.

9. Barbora Krejcikova

In the previous edition, Barbora Krejcikova took the doubles gold in the company of Katerina Siniakova. They overcame their Swiss challengers, Viktorija Golubic and Belinda Benicic, in straight sets for the top prize. The 2024 Wimbledon champion will do double duty in singles and doubles. Krejcikova will again pair with Siniakova, hoping to win a second straight Olympic gold.

Krejcikova arrives in Paris for the Olympics with the Wimbledon title in her bag. The Czech also returned to the WTA top 10 for the first time since January of this year.

8. Carlos Alcaraz

Carlos Alcaraz will be back on the clay courts of Roland-Garros after his French Open win for his Olympic Games debut. The World No. 3 will be teaming up with Rafael Nadal in what will be the latter’s final shot at Olympic glory.

Alcaraz and Nadal are one of the two doubles pairs representing Spain at the 33rd Olympic Games, with the other yet to be decided. Alcaraz will be arriving in Paris straight from London after winning his second consecutive Wimbledon title. The formidable Spanish duo will be among the favourites to pick up a medal at the showpiece event.

7. Coco Gauff

Coco Gauff will be making her Olympic debut at just 20. She is the top-ranked American woman in the WTA rankings and No. 2 in the world. Gauff will lend her firepower to the American squad comprising of top-ranked American among the men, Taylor Fritz and World No. 9 Danielle Collins.

The American tennis star will make her way to Paris with a semi-final appearance at the 2024 French Open behind her, as she hopes to look forward to a successful run at the Paris Olympics. Gauff will be a contender for the singles and doubles medals. She is set to play in the doubles event with Jessica Pegula.

6. Elena Rybakina

Elena Rybakina and Yulia Putintseva are to represent Kazakhstan in singles at the Paris Olympics. While the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was a first for both, Rybakina finished higher up the table in fourth position. Putintseva finished at the 33rd position. The World No. 4 was denied the bronze medal in 2020 by Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina.

In her 2024 outing at Roland-Garros, Rybakina made the last eight before losing to Jasmine Paolini.  Putintseva, who had never taken a set off Iga Swiatek, memorable ended the Polish player’s 21-match winning streak in the Wimbledon third round.

5. Iga Swiatek

World No. 1 Iga Swiatek is in the Polish singles lineup for Paris. Swiatek made her debut at the 2020 Olympics and signed up for the women’s singles and mixed doubles events. It was a rather ordinary visit to Tokyo, with the Pole finishing 17th in singles and fifth in mixed doubles.

She will now head back to her happy hunting grounds, Roland-Garros, where she won her third straight title. Swiatek will be sharing the singles workload with Magda Linette and Magdalena Frech.

4. Jannik Sinner

Jannik Sinner leads the Italian Olympic tennis squad and will look for support from Lorenzo Musetti and Jasmine Paolini. Musetti and Paolini made deep runs at the recently-concluded 2024 Wimbledon edition.

Sinner will debut in the Olympics, while Musetti and Paolini have represented Italy at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. World No. 1, Jannik Sinner made the title round at Roland-Garros this season, but was outlasted by Carlos Alcaraz. 

3. Naomi Osaka

Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam winner and former World No. 1, has been climbing back up the ranks and is close to a return to the WTA top 100. Her first Olympics was at home at the 2020 Tokyo Games. She represented Japan in the women’s singles event, finishing in ninth position. Osaka lost in the third round to eventual silver medalist Marketa Vondrousova.

Naomi Osaka currently ranked No. 102, qualifies as a former Grand Slam winner. Osaka will play in the singles event on her return to Roland-Garros. In the second round of the French Open, she came within a whisker of knocking out eventual champion Iga Swiatek.

2. Novak Djokovic

Djokovic will be playing in his fifth Olympic Games in Paris this month. Despite his success on the ATP Tour, the Olympics have not been quite the success story the Serbian would have hoped for. His best result at the event was a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. He came close to a podium finish at the 2020 Tokyo Games, finishing in fourth place in both singles and mixed doubles.

At the Tokyo Olympics, Djokovic was denied a singles bronze medal by Pablo Carreno Busta. In mixed doubles, Novak Djokovic and Nina Stojanovic gifted the third-place medal to Australians John Peers and Ashleigh Barty by a walkover. Djokovic will play the singles for Serbia and will be joined by compatriot Dusan Lajovic.

1. Rafael Nadal

Nadal’s first visit to the Olympics was to the 20024 edition in Athens, where he finished 17th in doubles. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he won the singles gold for Spain. The Spaniard added another gold to his tally at Rio in 2016 – this time in doubles.

In 2008, Nadal fended off Chilean Fernando Gonzalez for the top place in men’s singles. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez took the doubles gold against Romanians Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau. At Paris 2024, Nadal will partner with Alcaraz in the doubles event. The 22-time Grand Slam winner is currently playing in Bastad for some clay practice before the Olympics.

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