Tennis at Paris 2024 Olympic Games: Who’s in and who’s out – ft. Novak Djokovic, Iga Swiatek, Emma Raducanu

It is less than two weeks until the Paris 2024 Olympic Games gets underway in Paris.

Several of the best tennis players in the world return to Roland Garros for the second time this year for a taste of silverware – but some huge names have decided to turn their attention elsewhere.

We run through the biggest names in and out of Olympic contention.

Who is playing?

Men’s singles action is led by the top five players in the world, with current world No 1 Jannik Sinner set to be the top seed in Paris.

The Italian will be making his Olympic Games debut, as will Spain’s world No 3 Carlos Alcaraz – the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion, and arguably the favourite for gold.

Also competing is world No 2 Novak Djokovic, who is yet to win a title this season but will be desperate for Olympic glory, with a gold medal the only thing missing from the Serbian’s packed trophy cabinet.

World No 4 Alexander Zverev of Germany will be back to defend his title at the venue where he reached the French Open final last month, while world No 5 Daniil Medvedev will compete as a neutral athlete.

Fellow top ten players Alex de Minaur, Casper Ruud, and Hubert Hurkacz will also compete for their respective nations, while 2008 singles champion and 22-time Slam champion Rafael Nadal has used his protected ranking to enter.

Two-time singles gold medallist and former world No 1 Andy Murray, who has received one of two Grand Slam champion wildcard spots, will play for the final time – alongside Swiss star Stan Wawrinka.

American hopes in men’s action are led by Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz, while Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas is also entered.

The women’s field is led by world No 1 and five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek.

Having won the French Open the past three years, the Pole is an overwhelming favourite to capture her first Olympic gold medal this summer.

Joining her will be US No 1 and world No 2 Coco Gauff, making her Olympic debut after missing Tokyo 2020 due to COVID.

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World No 4 Elena Rybakina will be competing in her second Olympics representing Kazakhstan, having agonisingly finished in fourth place in Tokyo three years ago.

Joining Gauff in representing America is world No 6 Jessica Pegula, alongside Danielle Collins and Emma Navarro.

French Open and Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini is set to be the fourth seed in women’s singles action, while SW19 champion Barbora Krejcikova will look to add to the doubles gold she won in Tokyo.

Former world No 1’s Naomi Osaka and Caroline Wozniacki have benefitted from the legacy wildcards in the women’s singles, while Rio 2016 silver medallist Angelique Kerber used her protected ranking to enter.

Who is out?

The biggest name not in action is reigning Australian Open champion and world No 3 Aryna Sabalenka, who cited concerns around the change in surface ahead of the hard-court summer.

Making a similar decision were three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur and former US Open champion Emma Raducanu, with all three joining a strong field at the WTA 500 event in Washington D.C instead.

Other high-profile WTA stars to decline a spot were US No 4 and former Olympic semi-finalist Madison Keys, alongside fellow top-20 stars Daria Kasatkina, Liudmila Samsonova, Anna Kalinskaya, and Victoria Azarenka.

The latter quartet would have all had to enter as neutral athletes, unable to represent Russia or Belarus at these games.

That seems to be a deciding factor for many players, with it notable how many Russian and Belarusian players are not in action.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and ATP world No 6 Andrey Rublev – mixed doubles champions in Tokyo – have both decided to skip the event, as has men’s singles silver medallist Karen Khachanov.

Alongside Keys, there are also plenty of American players to pull out.

Frances Tiafoe, Sebastian Korda, and Ben Shelton will also be in hard-court action in the US instead, while Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov is ineligible due to an insufficient number of Davis Cup appearances.

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