The International Tennis Federation has unveiled the format for this summer's tennis event at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
When are the Paris 2024 Olympics?
The Paris Olympics will begin on July 26 with the Opening Ceremonies and conclude on Aug. 11.
The tennis event will be played during the first week of the Olympics, starting Saturday, July 27 to Sunday, Aug. 4. The medal rounds will be played from Friday, Aug. 2.
Tennis was one of the nine original Olympic sports at the first modern Olympic Games at Athens 1896 and continued until 1924. It returned as a full medal sport at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.
Where will the tennis be played?
The tournament will be played on outdoor red clay at the Stade Roland Garros, the same venue that hosts the French Open. It will be the first Olympic tennis event played on clay since Barcelona 1992 and the first Grand Slam venue to hold Olympic action since the All England Club at London 2012.
What are the sizes of the draws?
The Olympic Tennis Event will be comprised of five separate events:
Women's and men's singles: 64 players
Women's and men's doubles: 32 teams
Mixed doubles: 16 teams
Are there ranking points at the Olympics?
No. Hologic WTA Tour ranking points will not be awarded for Olympic participation.
Who is eligible to play?
Ranking requirement: Direct entries for the Olympics are based on the ATP and WTA rankings after the French Open on Monday, June 10. The ITF will publish entry lists for singles and doubles by Monday, July 8. The mixed doubles entry list will be published later in July.
Participation requirement: Players must have fulfilled the minimum participation requirement at the ITF's Davis Cup or Billie Jean King Cup during the four-year Olympic cycle. A player has fulfilled the requirement by being part of the final nominated team and present at the tie on a minimum of two occasions. One of those appearances must have occurred in either 2023 or 2024. Players who have not met the minimum participation requirement may submit an appeal to the ITF Olympic Committee.
Standing requirement: All athletes must be in good standing with their National Association and the ITF.
For full details on Olympic eligibility click here.
How does a player qualify to play?
A nation can send no more than 12 qualified athletes (six men, six women) to compete across the five events.
Singles Qualification
A nation can send a maximum of four singles players. The 64-player singles draws will be comprised of 56 direct acceptances, six final qualification places as allocated by the ITF, one host nation place and one universality place.
Note: In the event France qualifies an athlete or team directly, the host nation place will be reallocated to the next direct entry.
The ITF will allocate the final qualification places to the Pan American Games winner (Laura Pigossi of Brazil) and runner-up (Maria Lourdes Carle of Argentina), Asian Games winner (Zheng Qinwen), African Games winner (TBD), and two former Olympic Gold medalists and/or Grand Slam Champions (TBD).
Two places may be awarded to an Olympic singles gold medalist or Grand Slam singles champion who has not achieved direct acceptance, provided they are ranked inside the Top 400 in singles and the quota for their country has not already been filled. If more than two athletes meet these criteria, the places will be allocated to the two athletes with the higher number of titles. If three or more athletes meet these criteria and have the same number of titles, the two highest-ranked athletes based on singles will qualify.
Full details on Olympic qualification here.
Doubles Qualification
The 32-team doubles draws will be comprised of 31 direct acceptances and one team from the Host Nation. A nation can send a maximum of two teams.
Direct Acceptance places are determined in the following order:
a. Players ranked in the Doubles Top 10, provided their partner is ranked inside the Top 300;
b. Additional places up to and including the 24th Direct Acceptance team will be allocated to the highest-ranked teams based on the Combined Ranking of each team using a player's best ranking in singles or doubles;
c. Additional teams will earn direct acceptance in the following "Singles Priority": i) Highest combined-ranked teams with both athletes accepted into the Singles event; ii) Highest combined-ranked teams with one athlete accepted into the Singles event; iii) Highest combined-ranked teams remaining in the nominations
Mixed doubles qualification
The 16-team mixed doubles draws will be comprised of 15 direct acceptances and one team from the Host Nation. Nations may enter only one mixed doubles team.
Direct Acceptance places are based on the Combined Ranking of each team. The team must be comprised of players already entered in singles or doubles.
Who are the reigning Olympic medalists?
Singles
Gold: Belinda Bencic (SUI)
Silver: Marketa Vondrousova (CZE)
Bronze: Elina Svitolina (UKR)
Doubles
Gold: Barbora Krejcikova & Katerina Siniakova (CZE)
Silver: Belinda Bencic & Viktorija Golubic (SUI)
Bronze: Laura Pigossi & Luisa Stefani (BRA)
Mixed doubles
Gold: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova & Andrey Rublev
Silver: Elena Vesnina & Aslan Karatsev
Bronze: Ashleigh Barty & John Peers (AUS)
Will there be WTA Tournaments during the Olympics?
Yes. The Hologic WTA Tour calendar will continue as scheduled during the Olympics:
July 21-26: Hamburg (WTA 250), Prague (WTA 250)
July 29-Aug.4: Washington D.C. (WTA 500)
Aug. 6-12: Toronto (WTA 1000)
