Thetennis tournaments at the2024 Summer Olympics inParis ran from 27 July to 4 August at theStade Roland Garros.[1] The event featured a total of 175 players across five medal events: singles and doubles for both men and women and mixed doubles.[2][3]
Similar to previous editions, the Paris 2024 format was set in asingle-elimination tournament with the men's and women's singles draws consisting of 64 players. The tennis tournaments featured six rounds in the men's and women's singles, five in the men's and women's doubles (draw size of 32), and four in the mixed doubles (draw size of 16). The players and pairs advancing to the semifinal stage put themselves into medal contention with the two losing semifinalists competing for abronze medal. All singles matches will be best of three sets with a standardtiebreak (first to seven points) in every set, including the final set.[4] In all doubles competitions, a match tiebreak (first to ten points) will be contested instead of a third set. The Paris 2024 event is the first Olympicclay court event since theBarcelona 1992 event was played atTennis de la Vall d'Hebron.[4] A total of 10 NOC's won medals along with the Independent Athletes team. It was the second Olympic tournament to be played at aGrand Slam venue in the Open era and the first since theLondon 2012 event was staged at theWimbledon Championships venue, theAll England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
In the women's singles,Zheng Qinwen beatDonna Vekić to become the first Chinese tennis player to win Olympic singles gold.[6] It was also China's second tennis gold medal afterLi Ting andSun Tiantian won the women's doubles in Athens in 2004. Zheng's gold medal followed an upset win in the semifinals over world #1Iga Swiatek of Poland, the four-time and three-time defending French Open champion who had won 25 straight matches at Roland Garros.[7] Swiatek won bronze overAnna Karolína Schmiedlová.
In the men's singles,Novak Djokovic of Serbia overcame French Open champion SpaniardCarlos Alcaraz in straight sets after tiebreaks in both to win gold. It marked the first Olympic gold medal in his fifth Olympic Games for Djokovic, who had won a record 24 Grand Slam men's singles titles including three French Opens (2016,2021 and2023), as well as the first Olympic tennis gold medal for Serbia as well as his second medal after having won a bronze medal in Beijing 2008 men's singles. Djokovic also became just the fifth player to win acareer singles Golden Slam consisting of all four majors and Olympic gold afterSteffi Graf,Andre Agassi,Rafael Nadal andSerena Williams. Graf is the only player to record a Golden Slam in a calendar year after doing so in 1988, while Williams is the only player to have a career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles (with her sisterVenus as her partner).[8] Nadal and Williams, together with former French world #1Amélie Mauresmo, were also chosen among the torchbearers during the last leg of the Olympic torch relay during theopening ceremony despite not being French, and Djokovic beat Nadal in the second round.Lorenzo Musetti won bronze overFélix Auger-Aliassime in three sets.
Everything I felt in that moment when I won surpassed everything I thought or hoped that it would...Being on that court with the Serbian flag raising, singing the Serbian anthem, with the gold around my neck, I think nothing can beat that in terms of professional sport. It definitely stands out as the biggest sporting achievement I have had.
The event was alsoAndy Murray's last professional outing after winning gold in the London 2012 event at Wimbledon and in Rio de Janeiro four years later, where he was Great Britain's opening ceremony flagbearer, in addition to three Grand Slam singles titles and a Davis Cup with Great Britain.[9] It was also the last event for former world #1Angelique Kerber, who had won three Grand Slam singles titles and been the silver medalist in Rio.[10]
To be eligible forParis 2024, a tennis player must satisfy the key criteria to play onDavis Cup orBillie Jean King Cup teams. The qualification pathway for the singles tournaments is primarily based on theATP andWTA rankings of 10 June 2024, with 56 players entering each of the men's and women's singles (limited to four perNational Olympic Committee (NOC)).[11] Six of the remaining eight slots are attributed to the NOCs with no other qualified tennis players across five continental zones (two for the Americas and one each for the rest). The final two spots are reserved, one for the host nation France and the other for the previous Olympic gold medalist or Grand Slam champion.[11][12][13] In the men's and women's doubles tournaments, thirty-two places will offer for the highest-ranked teams with ten of them reserved for players in the top ten of the doubles rankings, who could select his or her partner from their NOC ranked in the top 300 of either singles or doubles. The remaining spots are attributed through the combined rankings with a preference given to the singles players once the total quota is filled. One team per gender is reserved for the host nation France if none has already become eligible otherwise.[11] With no quota places available for the mixed doubles, all teams will consist of players already entered in either the singles or doubles, including the top 15 combined ranking teams and the host nation France.[11]