Every four years (or so), tennis gives us a fifth major. Well, sort of. Tennis at the Olympics sometimes provides titanic heavyweight matchups — and sometimes delivers surprises.
It will be hard to top Andy Murray vs. Roger Federer and Serena Williams vs. Maria Sharapova for gold medals in 2012. It makes sense that Murray and Rafael Nadal have combined for three gold medals. However, Nicolas Massu and Monica Puig having singles golds while Federer and Novak Djokovic do not makes a little less sense.
As with the 2012 Olympics, which took place at Wimbledon’s All England Club, the 2024 tournament in Paris will unfold at an awfully familiar location: Roland Garros, home of the French Open. Injuries have taken out some highly ranked players, but all of the men’s and women’s semifinalists from this year’s French Open are in the Olympic field, as are Nadal, the 14-time French Open champion, and Murray, a two-time gold medalist.
In other words, there are plenty of storylines to follow.
Wimbledon just ended, but another Slam(ish) product begins in just two weeks. Here are the names to know ahead of the Games.
Men’s preview
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Carlos Alcaraz: It probably goes without saying that the guy who’s won the past two Slams heads to Paris as the No. 1 threat. After taking down both Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev in five sets to win his first French Open title, Alcaraz steamrolled Djokovic to win his second straight Wimbledon crown. Both runs required perseverance — he dropped a total of 10 sets at the two tournaments and played in seven tiebreakers (winning six) — but he’s now won four of the past seven Slams he’s entered. And he only turned 21 two months ago. Wow.
Jannik Sinner: Sinner won 25 of his first 26 matches of 2024 and took the Australian Open title and the No. 1 ranking for the first time in June. He’s 0-2 against Alcaraz, though, which makes him the No. 2 favorite in Paris.
There are few things in sports more entertaining than an Alcaraz-Sinner matchup at the moment, and the thought of a gold medal match between them is awfully tantalizing if the draw cooperates.
Alexander Zverev: Not including injury retirements, Zverev has won 21 of his past 24 matches at Roland Garros. He reached the finals this year and was a set away…
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