The Olympic tennis occasion is now one month away.
With Roland-Garros getting ready to host the video games in just some weeks, the image of who might be trying to convey house the gold is turning into clearer as nations are starting to announce their lineups for the 2024 Summer time Olympic video games in Paris.
Canada introduced their roster on Thursday, with 5 Canadians heading to Paris to characterize the Nice White North.
With the Olympics quick approaching, it’s a good time to look forward and supply all the things it is advisable to learn about tennis at Paris 2024.
How does Olympic Tennis work?
The tennis occasion on the Olympics capabilities in largely the identical method as some other top-level tennis match.
There might be 5 competitions: males’s and ladies’s singles, males’s and ladies’s doubles, and combined doubles. The singles attracts will characteristic 64 gamers and 6 rounds, making it much like a Masters/WTA 1000 occasion. The lads’s and ladies’s doubles attracts will embody 32 groups and 5 rounds, whereas the combined doubles could have 16 groups and simply 4 rounds.
All matches might be Greatest-of-Three units with a typical (first to seven) tiebreak on the finish of every set, together with the deciding set. For all doubles competitions, the third set might be a brilliant (first to 10) tiebreak, once more the identical as a 1000-level occasion.
One distinction, with it being the Olympics and three medals being awarded, is that the dropping semifinalists are nonetheless required to play one other match for the bronze medal.
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The largest distinction between the Olympic match and each different match on the ATP and WTA excursions is participant eligibility.
Who’s eligible to play on the Olympics?
The eligibility for the Olympics is completely different from common tour occasions, that are based mostly purely on rankings.
Rankings are an element and might be based mostly on the June 10, 2024 rankings. Nevertheless, it is not going to merely be the Prime 56 athletes who get into the singles attracts (eight spots are reserved for different circumstances).
Every nation is proscribed to simply 4 athletes within the singles competitions and two doubles groups. If a rustic has greater than 4 athletes within the Prime 56, solely the highest 4 may be chosen. For instance, america has eight girls and 7 males within the Prime 56 of the respective tour rankings; solely 4 have been chosen for every draw.
This restrict was not a problem for Canada, as solely Félix Auger-Aliassime and Leylah Annie Fernandez have been ranked within the Prime 56 outright, whereas Milos Raonic and Bianca Andreescu have been in a position to get in with their protected rankings.
Participation within the Davis Cup or Billie Jean King Cup through the Olympic cycle, on this case since 2021, is required to be eligible for the Olympics. A participant will need to have been nominated for and current at a minimal of two ties/occasions, with at the least a kind of participations being in 2023 or 2024.
If a participant doesn’t meet the Davis/Billie Jean King Cup necessities, a panel does exist to think about extenuating circumstances and will grant eligibility. This was the case for Andreescu.
For doubles, gamers within the Prime 10 of the doubles rating obtain direct entrance so long as their companion is ranked contained in the Prime 300. After that, locations are decided based mostly on the mixed rankings of the 2 members of the staff.
Combined doubles might be based mostly on the mixed rating of the 2 gamers.
Throughout all 5 competitions, a rustic can ship not more than six males and 6 girls. Ultimate nominations for the Olympics might be decided by the Tennis Canada Olympic Choice Committee.
Which Canadians might be competing in Paris 2024?
5 Canadians have been nominated to the Canadian Olympic staff:
Bianca Andreescu
Félix Auger-Aliassime
Leylah Annie Fernandez
Gabriela Dabrowski
Milos Raonic
Andreescu, Fernandez, Auger-Aliassime, and Raonic will all be competing in singles.
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Canada could have two doubles pairs confirmed, one in every draw. Fernandez and Dabrowski, who’ve performed collectively efficiently on the Billie Jean King Cup on a number of events, will play within the girls’s doubles, whereas Auger-Aliassime and Raonic are teaming up within the males’s doubles.
The entry listing for combined doubles may also be based mostly on rating however decided through an on-site sign-in the week of the occasion and can comprise athletes who’re already taking part in one of many different 4 attracts
It will likely be the Olympic debut for Andreescu.
Canada’s Historical past on the Olympics
Since tennis was formally reintroduced to the Olympics in 1988, Canada has despatched at the least two athletes to each Video games.
Canada has gained one medal in Olympic tennis. On the 2000 Summer time Video games in Sydney Australia, Daniel Nestor and Sébastien Lareau defeated the native favourites Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde to win the boys’s doubles gold medal.
Nestor additionally completed fourth within the males’s doubles at Rio 2016 with Vasek Pospisil, dropping to eventual gold medalists Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez of Spain within the semis earlier than falling to People Steve Johnson and Jack Sock within the bronze medal match.
Raonic might be competing on the Olympics for the second time in his profession. His lone earlier look was additionally the final time the occasion was held at a Grand Slam venue, in 2012 when Wimbledon participant host.
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On that event, Raonic reached the second spherical the place he misplaced the longest best-of-three match when it comes to video games in Olympic historical past, falling 25-23 within the third set to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
On the final Olympics in Tokyo, Leylah Annie Fernandez went down within the second spherical to reigning French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova, whereas Felix Auger-Aliassime misplaced within the first spherical to Max Purcell of Australia. Each of them have been competing on the Olympics for the primary time.
Gabriela Dabrowski competed in each girls’s and combined doubles, however misplaced within the first spherical of each with Sharon Fichman and Auger-Aliassime respectively. The Ottawan additionally performed within the 2016 Video games in Rio, dropping in spherical two with Eugenie Bouchard.
