After a lengthy build-up the Olympic Tennis competition gets underway at Roland Garros on Saturday as 64 male players head to Paris looking to win a coveted golf medal in a sport which is really gaining in profile at the Games these days.
Alexander Zverev won the gold medal in Tokyo three years ago but he won that on a hard court and he’ll be looking to double down on a clay court with the other big difference this time around being that the tournament will be played in front of a crowd.
Recent Winners
2020 – Alexander Zverev
2016 – Andy Murray
2012 – Andy Murray
2008 – Rafael Nadal
2004 – Nicolas Massu
2000 – Yevgeny Kafelnikov
1996 – Andre Agassi
1992 – Marc Rosset
1988 – Miloslav Mecir
The Format
This is a straight knockout tournament right from the start. There was a limit to the number of players a country could send so the field is different to the ones we might see in a Grand Slam or a Masters Series tournament. All matches are the best of three sets which this time includes the final which is a change to the best of five sets the gold medal match has been in the past. Tie-breaks are in operation in all sets including the deciding one much like a regular tour event.
Top Quarter
Jannik Sinner was expected to be the number one seed at the 2024 Olympics but he has been ruled out of the event with tonsilitis which means that Novak Djokovic will embark on what is likely to be the last chance to win an elusive gold medal in the top quarter of the draw. Each quarter will have four seeds in it and the other three looking to deny Djokovic that gold medal will be Stefanos Tsitsipas, Sebastian Baez and Arthur Fils.
Given that we only have 16 seeds in the draw this week and only 64 in the event overall the unseeded players in each quarter are of a high quality and there is no higher than Rafael Nadal who is on a second round collision course with Djokovic. Other impressive unseeded players in the top quarter include Milos Raonic, Matteo Arnaldi and Marton Fucsovics while there is also British interest in this section in the form of Dan Evans.
Second Quarter
This is the quarter of the draw where the defending champion Alexander Zverev will look to win the gold medal. The French Open finalist generally has a good record on the clay courts of Paris and he will fancy his chances of going deep this week. He is on a collision course with Taylor Fritz in the quarter final but there are two other seeds out to stop that match from taking place. They are Lorenzo Musetti, who has twice taken Djokovic the distance in the French Open here, and the last seed into the draw in Nicolas Jarry who was upgraded once Jannik Sinner had withdrawn.
There is a good mix of youth and experience in the unseeded ranks in this quarter with the former French Open champion Stan Wawrinka one of the experienced heads who stands out, while the home favourite Gael Monfils will look to bring tennis gold to his country from this spot in the draw. Nuno Borges recently beat Rafael Nadal to win in Sweden and he is in this section as are the likes of Kei Nishikori, Alexander Bublik, Mariano Navone and the exciting Czech player Tomas Machac. Jack Draper represents the Brits here.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account and bet £10 to get up to £20 in free bets! Perfect offer for the Olympics! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Third Quarter
The Australian Open finalist Daniil Medvedev will go in search of a maiden Olympic gold medal as the highest seed in the third quarter as he looks to finally crack the clay of Roland Garros for the first time. He is seeded to meet the man who has reached two French Open finals at this venue in the quarter final in the form of Casper Ruud but the leading home star Ugo Humbert and Canadian ace Felix Auger-Aliassime are likely to have something to say about that.
This is actually one of the weaker quarters in terms of the unseeded players. Francisco Cerundolo had a great match with Novak Djokovic at the French Open which should give him some confidence on his return to Roland Garros while Marcos Giron arrives here having won his first ATP title in Newport last week, although that was on the grass. Maximilian Marterer, Rinky Hijikata, Dusan Lajovic and Taro Daniel are other names floating about.
Bottom Quarter
This is where the French Open and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz will look to get his hands on the Olympic gold medal from. This is likely to be a busy week for the man who has won the last two Grand Slam titles as he is scheduled to pair up with Rafael Nadal in the doubles. That might be of interest to Alex de Minaur who is seeded to face Alcaraz in the quarter final here. Tommy Paul and Alejandro Tabilo are the other two seeds in the quarter.
This isn’t what you would call a strong quarter but it certainly isn’t weak either with Tomas Martin Etcheverry certainly a dangerous outsider in it on his favourite surface. Jan-Lennard Struff and Luciano Darderi are also players capable of big runs in this tournament while the home man Corentin Moutet will want to go well in his home Olympics. Cameron Norrie is the British representative in the bottom quarter of this draw.
Betting
I’m all over Casper Ruud in this tournament. I have been praying for a while that he would land in a nice section of the draw and dodge some of the nasty first round bullets that could have come his way and he has ticked both of those boxes. Ruud has a wonderful record in Paris having made gone F-F-SF in the last three French Open tournaments here and he is going to be feeling good about his chances this week. I just don’t see how he doesn’t make the last 16 here and even there Ugo Humbert isn’t the toughest opponent and Daniil Medvedev is a great quarter final seed on clay. Ruud is a ridiculous 96-26 on clay since the beginning of 2021 and on his best surface, at a venue he loves, with a great draw and fast conditions which should really suit he feels a great bet here.
The other bet that I am willing to take a chance on in the outright markets comes in the second quarter where the recent Bastad winner Nuno Borges could be overpriced at 28/1. This isn’t the toughest quarter of the draw even though the defending champion Alexander Zverev is in it. Borges wouldn’t meet him until the quarter final although Lorenzo Musetti could be a bit of an obstacle getting to that stage of the event. You don’t get better confidence boosts heading into a clay tournament than winning a title and beating Rafael Nadal in a final less than two weeks prior to the Olympics and with the faster conditions likely to suit a man who has a good record on both hard courts and clay recently I think the price on him to make the medal matches from quarter two just looks too big.
Tips
Back C.Ruud to win Olympic Gold Medal (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with Sky Bet (1/2 1-2)
Back N.Borges to win 2nd Quarter for a 1/10 stake at 29.00 with Coral
