To many, tennis and the Olympics are an odd combination, especially the 2024 Games in Paris.
After more than a month away from the clay courts of Roland Garros, the world’s best tennis players will return to Roland Garros at that time of year when they should start taking their swing on North America’s hard courts.
More than a decade ago, in the halcyon days of the London Olympics, players basically just walked across town, from Wimbledon to the Olympic Village and then commuted to the All England Club, where the most important event had just concluded for another Contest. Very simple. Since then, not so much.
In 2016, a big question ahead of the Rio Olympics was who wanted to travel to South America and risk contracting the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne virus that was raging in Brazil at the time. Dealing with coronavirus restrictions and testing in 2021, as well as playing in empty stadiums and in sunny climes, are all part of Tokyo’s bargain.
Britain’s Andy Murray won his second consecutive Olympic gold medal at the 2016 Olympics. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
This year, it’s been a strange transition from the slowest surface in tennis (clay) to one of the fastest (Wimbledon grass), then back to slow clay, and then to the compressed American hard courts of North America Open Adjustment Run.
For world number one clay court expert like Iga Swiatek, this is paradise. She’s probably one of the few athletes in any sport to travel to Paris where she can basically drive to get a gold medal. She just hasn’t lost at Roland Garros and has won four French Open titles in the past five years.
For almost everyone else, it’s complicated.
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Three of America’s top players, Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe and Sebastian Korda, have all passed. Too much time on the road. There is so much hard-court preparation that goes into the U.S. Open, which for many Americans is the most important Grand Slam of the year.
Tiafoe, the child of Sierra Leone immigrants with a deep love for his country and representing it, said it was a difficult decision but not because of the tennis tournament or the chance to win a medal. He is a basketball fan and believes this is the only time LeBron James and Stephen Curry will play together in the Olympics.
“It’s going to be iconic,” said Tiafoe, who believes he’s still good enough to make the team when the Summer Olympics are held in Los Angeles four years from now.
Two-time defending Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus and three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabr of Tunisia also withdrew due to injury concerns.
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“I’m really curious about how the players are going to compete in the Olympics and the hard-court season,” said Jabbour, who has battled a knee injury all year that could be aggravated by such a drastic change of surface. “Honestly, it’s going to be very tough.”
Yet, every person who passes opens an opportunity for someone in the world who won’t miss it. Chris Eubanks ranks sixth on the list of American players eligible to fill one of four spots in the U.S. singles. When he was called up, he welcomed the opportunity to compete on a team level while also getting into the Olympic spirit.
Clay is his worst surface.
“I’ll figure it out,” he said.
The opening ceremony takes place the night before the tennis tournament begins. He might have to play the next morning.
Japan’s Naomi Osaka lights the Olympic torch at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
“Never mind,” he said. “Didn’t miss that.”
American sprinter Christian Coleman is a fifth-grade student at Eubanks. They became good friends from then on. Now, together they will become Olympians. Coleman was named to the U.S. relay team.
“How cool is that?” he said.
Last week, the International Tennis Federation, which runs the Olympics, boasted that 22 of the top 30 men and women had committed. The same goes for Rafael Nadal, who will play doubles with Carlos Alcaraz in what should be one of the Olympic showcase events.
Assuming Novak Djokovic’s knee holds up, he underwent meniscus surgery on June 5, but Made it to the Wimbledon final and will be there too. Despite winning 24 Grand Slam titles, Djokovic has never won an Olympic gold medal in four attempts. This is the most surprising hole in his resume. He was a staple at the Tokyo Olympics, doing splits with the gymnasts in the Olympic Village gymnasium, making noise as other Serbian athletes watched the games together and posing for photos with just about anyone.
Novak Djokovic did win a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Is that glass almost three-quarters full, or more than one-quarter empty?
Nearly four decades after tennis returned to the Olympic program after a 64-year hiatus, tennis remains in a somewhat strange position at the Olympics. It brings together some of the biggest stars in the sport, but a gold medal doesn’t have the same luster as a Grand Slam win, unless you’re someone like Alexander Zverev or Belinda Bencic who haven’t won much. A gold medal winning title for a Grand Slam singles championship.
ITF president Dave Haggerty said the sport’s return to the Olympics has been one of the keys to its development since 1988. There are now 213 countries with tennis federations, up from 104 in 1988. There are 51 countries, less than 40 countries.
“This is not a traditional tennis audience,” Hagerty said. “This is an opportunity for us to reach a different audience.”
Just as Wimbledon was decked out in pink in 2012, organizers plan to dress up Roland Garros to look like more than just a smaller version of Roland Garros.
Since Omega is an Olympic sponsor, they will have to cover up the Rolex logo. There are also no electronic line calls, no bonuses, and perhaps more importantly, no ranking points. With no chance of earning ranking points, Canadian star Denis Shapovalov trying to come back from injury and desperate to get his ranking back to a position where he can be seeded in a major tournament, he says he can’t There is no choice but to miss the Olympics.
Venus and Serena Williams have won a combined eight Olympic gold medals and 30 Grand Slam singles titles. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Hagerty said the purity of competing for medals is the quadrennial appeal in itself. It’s easy for him to say it – he’s not giving up two weeks’ salary to attend. The spectacle of the Olympics and the break it brings from the hamster wheel of the regular circuit is also an attraction. Given the chance to march to the opening ceremony – or in this case, take a ferry down the Seine – and spend a week living and/or socializing with 10,000 of the best athletes, many players would take it A week of racing on gravel.
“Emma and I already have plans to exchange pins and go around the village,” said Danielle Collins, who will make up the U.S. team with Emma Navarro. “All the items on my wish list.”
Coco Gauff wants to win a medal, but also meets the greatest gymnast of all time Simone Biles and 100m gold medal favorite Shakari Richardson, and hopes to compete with two other American runners, Gabby Thomas McLaughlin-Lefron again with Sidney.
It turns out that Daniil Medvedev is also an Olympian. “Very easy decision,” he said, claiming he liked the atmosphere in Tokyo, which has probably been the worst ever for a Summer Olympics due to all the coronavirus restrictions. In light of this, Russian Medvedev, who will compete as a neutral athlete due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, will spend some time in Paris.
“I know that if I think strictly about my personal career, it’s better to go to Canada and prepare for hard-court matches,” Medvedev said last week. “When I am 40 years old, if I can say that I participated in the Tokyo Olympics, the Paris Olympics, the Los Angeles Olympics, and I have had a lot of fun in my life and my career, I will be very happy.”
Alcaraz, who turns 21 in May, is practically frothing at the mouth about competing in his first Olympics. He said he will “give 100 percent for my country” and then figure out what his pre-U.S. Open schedule will look like.
“I have to think about it,” he said.
He will have plenty of other players to consult.
(Top photo: Dan Goldfarb/ Competitor; Photo: Abby Parr/Getty Images)
