The Paris 2024 Olympic Games are getting closer and closer. Tennis embraces a new Olympic event after the last event, in Tokyo and without an audience in the stands. Thus, we already know the key rules proposed by the ITF to be part of the competition, in addition to dates and cuts at the ranking level.
Tennis awaits the arrival of a new Olympic event with enthusiasm. As the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Gamesspecifically from the Saturday, July 27 to Sunday, August 4, the horizon becomes increasingly clearer and the requirements and key points of the competition begin to become more and more real. In this sense, today the ITF has published the ‘master guides’ for the Paris event, which include the number of tennis players who will participate in each modality, the limit of players that each country can bring, the ranking deadline for making the selection cut and several more aspects that provide clarity for the Olympic tournament.
As in the Grand Slams, the Olympic Games will host up to five different types of competition: men’s singles (with a team of 64 players), women’s singles (ditto), men’s doubles (with a team of 32 couples), women’s doubles (ditto) and mixed doubles (with a team of 16 couples). The format with respect to Tokyo will be maintained in every sense: the last major modification was the dispute of the men’s final in three sets instead of five sets, introduced for the first time in Japan.
However: Which tennis players will participate? How are all the places distributed? This is where the big doubt of many fans usually lies. First of all, there are 56 “direct” places who decide according to the ATP ranking: This does not mean that all these places go to the top-56 of the world rankings, since we must take into account that each country has a limit of four players (with the aim of having as many nationalities as possible).
In addition to those 56 places per ranking, there are others six places based on regional competitions: two places for the champion and finalist of the Pan American Games (the Argentine Facundo Díaz Acosta and the Chilean Tomás Barrios Vera), one for the champion of the Asian Games (the Chinese Zhizhen Zhang) one for the champion of the African Games (which will be held in Ghana in early March) and two spots designated for “Olympic and Grand Slam gold champions.” Under this last name, if you do not access the tournament by ranking, names such as Rafael Nadal about Andy Murray (although Rafa will be able to use the protected ranking and enter directly). It should be noted, however, that these places will only be valid if the tennis players are within the top-400 and if their country does not exceed the quota of four players (for example, Díaz Acosta would not be able to play the tournament if Argentina has four players with direct entry).
WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE LIMITATIONS AND EXCEPTIONS?
The tournament, which completes its table with a place for the host (it will not be necessary, since France has players who will enter directly, and will compete for direct places) and a “place for universality” (of which there is no specifies much more), must take into account the possible limitations that could prevent tennis players from competing in the Olympic Games. They refer to the participation and commitment of tennis players with their countries through Copa Davis/BJK Cup: They must have played at least two qualifiers during the last Olympic cycle, one of these being in 2023 or 2024.
This criterion would prevent names like Carlos Alcaraz or Rafael Nadal to be able to access direct places (by ranking) and compete in this event, but there are certain exceptions by which players could “justify” their absence in the Davis Cup and their classification to the Olympic tournament. These include “injury or illness”being “newcomers” to the Davis or the BJK Cup and a “historic commitment” or “great feats” in the Olympic Games, Davis Cup or Billie Jean King Cup. Finally, it should be noted that the cut by ranking of the Olympic tournament will occur on Monday, June 10, that is, at the conclusion of Roland Garros 2024: that will be the day on which places are defined by ranking for the Paris event.
2024-02-07 17:05:17
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