Tennis Qualification to Summer Olympic Games Paris 2024

[Olympian1010 8,305]

Ons Jabeur will skip Paris 2024. Another medal contender gone for  

 

 

[Orangehair43 315]

Sounds like a lot more will withdraw before the games.

[vinipereira 3,513]

6 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

Ons Jabeur will skip Paris 2024. Another medal contender gone for

I'm sorry, but with tennis players there's always one big excuse that everyone uses. In 2016 it was the Zika virus (which turned out to be a big nothing), in 2021 it was the pandemic (when most of them were playing in other tournaments at the same time) and now it's the change of surfaces. Honestly, I wish they would just be real about it and say they don't care that much about the Olympics...

[Epic Failure 364]

47 minutes ago, vinipereira said:

I'm sorry, but with tennis players there's always one big excuse that everyone uses. In 2016 it was the Zika virus (which turned out to be a big nothing), in 2021 it was the pandemic (when most of them were playing in other tournaments at the same time) and now it's the change of surfaces. Honestly, I wish they would just be real about it and say they don't care that much about the Olympics...

I mean, the change of surface aspect *is* a thing and happens sometimes in non-Olympic years, especially for those who are grass or clay specialists.

 

Hell, Rafa Nadal is doing the opposite - he's skipping grass this year precisely because he wants to do the Olympics without changing surface.

 

I'm sure some of it is because the Olympics might be less special for some tennis players than it is for other sports. But the change of surface thing is a real phenomenon.

[vinipereira 3,513]

4 minutes ago, Epic Failure said:

I mean, the change of surface aspect *is* a thing and happens sometimes in non-Olympic years, especially for those who are grass or clay specialists.

Sure, but maybe they should just say that they are prioritizing their ranking over the Olympics? (like every single Games)

 

Of course every player may choose what's best for them, but it would absolutely piss me off if some player wouldn't play the Games because of something like this.

[JoshMartini007 2,864]

The ITF needs to convince the ATP and WTA to award some ranking points. In the past, they gave points between a 1000 and 500 level event. That alone would stem the withdrawal of players.

 

Golf does it and it seems to be enough to encourage people to show up in 2020. I think only a handful withdrew

[Epic Failure 364]

I agree about the ranking points issue but I think the bigger issue is the fact that the tours themselves continue to hold events during the Olympics.

 

If we want tennis players to treat the Olympics as more important than normal events, then we should treat them as more important. Don't schedule a hard court event in DC the same week. It's literally tempting players to make the 'professional' choice.

[Monzanator 5,127]

17 minutes ago, Epic Failure said:

I agree about the ranking points issue but I think the bigger issue is the fact that the tours themselves continue to hold events during the Olympics.

 

If we want tennis players to treat the Olympics as more important than normal events, then we should treat them as more important. Don't schedule a hard court event in DC the same week. It's literally tempting players to make the 'professional' choice.

Tours are doing as best as they can. Olympics are mainly held in July these days and July is full of clay 250s which all the top players would skip anyway. The post-Wimbledon clay events are usually for lower ranked players or clay speciallists (some higher ranked players could enter them if they did bad on grass). Most top players are HC speciallists these days (Nadal who is on his last rites anyway and Świątek are exceptions from the rule). The two most important events during August are Canadian Open and Cincinnati. They are not getting moved and the week before USO is another 250 and new 500 in Mexico for women. Again, top players don't want to overplay one week before US Open. The entry list cut-off will be much higher than in Canada & Cincinnati.

 

The days of 2000 when Sydney OG were in September and there was a two week break between US Open and the Olympics will not return. Back then the season ended in mid-November (YEC date) or late November for Fed Cup final. These days women end their season in mid-October and they still complain they play too much.

 

ATP had their 2000 YEC in the last week of November. This year it's held in the second week of November.

 

The overall schedule issue is that Olympics are held in the same year as European Football Championships which is getting longer with more teams allowed. The days of 8/16 teams Euro ending in the last weekend of June are over. You won't see UEFA Euro overlapping the Olympics anytime soon and NEVER if Olympics are held in Europe as well. Everyone has to fall behind, even Athletics ECh which literally ended on a Wednesday this year not to mess up with the UEFA event. As big as World Athletics are, they are third string compared to UEFA.

 

The ideal Olympics schedule for tennis would be the second and third week of July. But that's not gonna happen with UEFA Euro stretching to mid-July these days. The 2008 schedule when Beijing was held in mid-August was also a killer, you had the USO swing either side of the OG (and most of it was front-loaded before OG anyway including all the Tier I events as they were called back then). Same thing happened in 2004 with Athens (also held in mid-August).

 

In 2024 to have ONE 500 event in DC during the Olympics is as good as it gets. It saves them having to split the USO swing into two halves if the OG would be held in August all the time. That 500 will be a good chance for lower ranked players or those who didn't make the OG cut due to nations quota to get an event result on their ranking. And Sabalenka would be a bigger favorite to win Washington than she would be of making the OG final for instance IMO.

 

Sorry for the long post but I do have an extended history of watching tennis so I'm not talking out of context here

[gilbsh 3]

11 hours ago, Epic Failure said:

I mean, the change of surface aspect *is* a thing and happens sometimes in non-Olympic years, especially for those who are grass or clay specialists.

 

Hell, Rafa Nadal is doing the opposite - he's skipping grass this year precisely because he wants to do the Olympics without changing surface.

 

I'm sure some of it is because the Olympics might be less special for some tennis players than it is for other sports. But the change of surface thing is a real phenomenon.

But Rafa skipped the grass season also in some non-olympic years..

[Pasolini 287]

11 hours ago, vinipereira said:

Sure, but maybe they should just say that they are prioritizing their ranking over the Olympics? (like every single Games)

 

Of course every player may choose what's best for them, but it would absolutely piss me off if some player wouldn't play the Games because of something like this.

Thiago Wild did this in Tokyo, let's see if he will do it again (obviously he had a crap summer season on clay and got no ranking points lol).

 

In Tokyo it was more... understandable.