Players will begin their quest for Olympic glory on Saturday when the tennis competition gets underway at Roland Garros.
A total of 181 players from 40 countries after taking part in the tournamrnt across five different disciplines (two singles and three doubles events). Singles matches are best of three tiebreak sets and doubles matches are three tiebreak sets but with a match tiebreak as the final set.
There will be plenty on the line in Paris, so here are five things to know.
Alcaraz could create history
After claiming the French Open and Wimbledon titles, Carlos Alcaraz has a shot at adding an Olympic title to his resume. Should the 21-year-old claim gold in the men’s singles, he would become the youngest player in history to do so. The all-time record is held by 1924 champion Vincent Richards of the USA and the Open Era record belongs to 1992 champion Marc Rosset. Both Richards and Rosset were 21 when they won the Olympics but Alcaraz enters into this year’s edition a couple of months younger than them.
If Alcaraz doesn’t succeed, the other two players who could break this record are Jakub Mensik and Arthur Fils.
Djokovic isn’t the only player with a chance of achieving the Golden Slam
Despite being one of the most decorated players in the history of tennis, a gold medal has so far eluded Novak Djokovic. The Serbian won a bronze medal in 2008 and settled for fourth position in both singles and mixed doubles three years ago in Tokyo. Should the Serbian win gold in the singles, he would become only the fifth player to have completed the golden slam – winning all four major titles and the Olympics. The only players to have done this so far in the singles competition are Rafael Nadal, Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi and Serena Williams.
Furthermore, Italy’s Sara Errani could achieve this milestone in the doubles tournament. The five-time major doubles champion is competing in the tournament alongside Jasmine Paolini. Should Errani achieve the Golden Slam, she would be the first player from her country – male or female – to do so.
Iga Swiatek aims to end Poland’s medal drought
Iga Swiatek has become a formidable force at Roland Garros, winning the French Open four out of the past five years. She will be hoping to continue her dominance at the Olympics where she is aiming to become the first Polish player in history to win a medal in tennis.
Should she win gold, the 23-year-old would become the first woman to win both the French Open and Olympic titles within the same season since Graf in 1988. She would also become the third player to win gold whilst ranked No.1 in the world after Graf in 1988 and Justine Henin in 2004.
Remarkably, in the Open Era the men’s singles title has never been won by the player ranked No.1 at the time.
There are a lot of former medalists
Despite taking place every four years, there are plenty of players in the draw who have previously won medals. A total of 16 players fall into this category – eight men and eight women.
Out of the group, the only multiple medalists are Andy Murray (two golds and one silver) and Rafael Nadal (two golds). The other players to have won a medal are the following:-
Barbora Krejcikova – Gold Tokyo 2020
Nikola Mektic – Gold Tokyo 2020
Elena Vesnina – Gold Rio 2016
Mate Pavic – Gold Tokyo 2020
Katerina Siniakova – Gold Tokyo 2020
Viktorija Golubic – Silver Tokyo 2020
Angelique Kerber – Silver Rio 2016
Rajeev Ram – Silver Rio 2016
Novak Djokovic – Bronze Beijing 2008
Kei Nishikori – Bronze Rio 2016
John Peers – Bronze Tokyo 2020
Laura Pigossi – Bronze Tokyo 2020
Luisa Stefani – Bronze Tokyo 2020
Elina Svitolina – Bronze Tokyo 2020
India’s Bopanna could break an Open Era age record
Doubles specialist Rohan Bopanna is bidding to become the oldest player in the Open Era to win an Olympic medal, as well as the oldest to do so in history since 1908! The 44-year-old is playing in the doubles tournament alongside Sriram Balaji.
However, if Bopanna wants to break the record for the oldest player to play an Olympic event in the Open era, he will have to participate in the 2028 Games. Martina Navratilova currently holds that record after taking part in the 2004 Athens game at the age of 47 years and 309 days.
