— Abhijit Deshmukh, London
At the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024, the men’s singles tennis will be decided in a best-of-three sets format. Earlier this week, Paris 2024 twitter handle had tweeted that it will best of five sets format. After confirmation from ITF, the tweet was taken down by Paris 2024 handle.
Couple of days back it was tweeted from this handle that Paris 2024 men’s singles final will be best of 5 sets. However, tweet is now taken down. Men’s singles final remain best of three sets.@RevSportz @BoriaMajumdar https://t.co/eWgqjZThP3
— Abhijit Deshmukh (@iabhijitdesh) January 3, 2023
The original decision remains which called for the best-of-three format to be used for all of the competition’s matches.
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Alexander Zverev of Germany won the gold medal in the men’s singles in a best of three sets match
against Karen Khachanov of the Russian Olympic Committee, 6-3, 6-1. It was the first time since the 1984 LA Olympics where the final was the best of three format. All men’s singles finals since 1988 Seoul untill 2016 Rio were the best of five sets format.
Unlike slams, Tennis at the Olympics is an 8-9 days affair where men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles & mixed doubles events are organized. Several top singles players represent their country in doubles events as well. With entries in multiple events, a tennis player is likely to play 2-3 matches in a single day. At the Tokyo Olympics, Novak Djokovic of Serbia participated in mixed doubles along with Nina Stojanovic. The Serbian pair lost in the semis but had a shot for the bronze medal. However, Novak Djokovic lost the men’s singles bronze medal match to Spain’s Pablo Busta. Djokovic suffered a shoulder injury during the same match. As a result, the Serbian pair had to withdraw from the mixed doubles bronze medal match which was scheduled on the same day.f It will be first time since Barcelona 1992 that Olympics will be played on clay. The Stade (Roland Garros) in the French capital will host the men’s and women’s singles competitions as well as the three doubles events at the 2024 Olympics.
King of clay, Rafael Nadal has won French open 14 times and gold in both men’s singles & men’s doubles at the Olympics. However, Spanish fans will still expect him to win Gold at Paris on his favourite surface and arena.
Qualification process for Tennis at Paris 2024:-
A total of 64 players will compete in the men’s and women’s singles tournaments.
The 56 players that qualify for “Direct Entry” into both competitions will be determined by their ATP or WTA rankings as of June 10, 2024, though this could alter if unforeseen circumstances arise. As the host country, France will have a participant in each of the singles draws. Six final qualifying spots, referred to as “ITF places” in the tournament regulations, will also be available, and includes those qualifying in the Asian Games which is due to be held in Hangzhou,China.
Each nation will be permitted a maximum of four players in the singles tournaments, and ITF regulations for eligibility stipulate that all players must be “in good standing with their national association and to have played the required number of ties in the Davis Cup or Billie Jean King Cup.”
Their respective national tennis federations must also be in “good standing.”
The doubles events will include a draw of 32 teams with a maximum of two pairs per nation, and the mixed doubles event will feature 16 teams with a maximum of one pairing from each nation.
The IOC will issue a call for nominations for the two “universality” positions in October 2023. The deadline for applications is January 10, 2024, and the IOC will make the final decision. On July 27, the Paris 2024 Olympic tennis competition is scheduled to get underway.