Olympics-Key facts about tennis at the Paris 2024 Games

Paris 2024 Olympics - Tennis Training - Roland Garros Stadium, Paris, France - July 24, 2024. Rafael Nadal of Spain during training. /Edgar Su

PARIS - The Paris 2024 Olympics involves 32 sports. Tennis is one of the original sports included in the first modern Games.

Here are some key facts about tennis at the Olympics.

HISTORY

The precursor to tennis was "jeu de paume", or "game of the hand”, which originated in France in the 11th century.

Tennis featured in the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, with a women's singles event added in 1900. Tennis disappeared from the program after 1924 and did not officially return until 1988.

DATES

The Olympic tennis tournament will be held over nine days, from Saturday, July 27 to Sunday, Aug. 4.

VENUE

The venue for the Olympic Tennis Event is Roland Garros, the site of the French Open in south-west Paris.

There will be 12 match courts and six practice courts, including the 15,000-capacity Court Philippe Chatrier and 9,000-capacity Court Suzanne Lenglen. Both courts have retractable roofs.

The surface is red clay which typically plays slower than hard courts.

THREE SETS

All matches at the Olympics will be best of three sets, unlike Grand Slam tournaments where men's singles matches are best of five sets.

PLAYERS

A total of 41 countries will be represented, with 184 players competing across five events: men's and women's singles and doubles, plus mixed doubles.

Sixty-four players will compete in each singles event, while 32 teams will contest the doubles events and 16 in the mixed doubles.

There is a limit of four singles players per gender per country. Nations were also able to nominate up to two doubles teams per event, with a maximum of six players per gender per country in total.

With professionals permitted to compete, Olympic tennis regularly features athletes who have already achieved international fame.

The Paris Games will see the return of all the men's singles gold medallists from the past four Olympics. These include Spain's Rafael Nadal who won in Beijing in 2008, Britain's Andy Murray who won the London 2012 and Rio 2016 competitions and Germany's Alexander Zverev who won at Tokyo 2020.

However, Murray, 37, said he would not compete in the singles competition at the Paris Games and would prioritise the doubles in his final tournament before retirement.

Nadal, 38, is expected to follow him into retirement soon, after struggling with injuries over the past two years.

World number one Jannik Sinner withdrew from the Games on Wednesday due to tonsillitis, denting Italy's hopes of winning a first Olympic tennis medal since 1924.

In the women's singles, world number one and clay specialist Iga Swiatek is a clear favourite, especially in the absence of Belarus's Aryna Sabalenka and Tunisia's Ons Jabeur, who decided not to take part.

Women's third seed Elena Rybakina joined the list of non-starters hours after the draw took place at Roland Garros on Thursday.

Below is a full list of top-seeded players, released by the International Tennis Federation, taking account of the latest withdrawals. The draw took place on Thursday.

Men's singles

1. Novak Djokovic (Serbia)

2. Carlos Alcaraz (Spain)

3. Alexander Zverev (Germany)

4. Daniil Medvedev (Neutral)

5. Alex de Minaur (Australia)

6. Casper Ruud (Norway)

7. Taylor Fritz (USA)

8. Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece)

9. Tommy Paul (USA)

10. Ugo Humbert (France)

11. Lorenzo Musetti (Italy)

12. Sebastian Baez (Argentina)

13. Felix Auger-Aliassime (Canada)

14. Arthur Fils (France)

15. Alejandro Tabilo (Chile)

16. Nicolas Jarry (Chile)

Women's singles

1. Iga Swiatek (Poland)

2. Coco Gauff (USA)

4. Jasmine Paolini (Italy)

5. Jessica Pegula (USA)

6. Qinwen Zheng (China)

7. Maria Sakkari (Greece)

8. Danielle Collins (USA)

9. Barbora Krejcikova (Czechia)

10. Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia)

11. Emma Navarro (USA)

12. Marta Kostyuk (Ukraine)

13. Donna Vekic (Croatia)

14. Beatriz Haddad Maia (Brazil)

15. Diana Shnaider (Neutral)

16. Leylah Fernandez (Canada)

17. Caroline Garcia (France)

Men's doubles

2. Andrea Vavassori / Simone Bolelli (Italy)

3. Kevin Krawietz / Tim Puetz (Germany)

4. Taylor Fritz / Tommy Paul (USA)

5. Rajeev Ram / Austin Krajicek (USA)

6. Joe Salisbury / Neal Skupski (Great Britain)

7. Andres Molteni / Maximo Gonzalez (Argentina)

8. Mate Pavic / Nikola Mektic (Croatia)

8. Arthur Fils / Ugo Humbert

Women's doubles

1. Coco Gauff / Jessica Pegula (USA)

2. Barbora Krejcikova / Katerina Siniakova (Czech R.)

3. Sara Errani / Jasmine Paolini (Italy)

4. Danielle Collins / Desirae Krawczyk (USA)

5. Gabriela Dabrowski / Leylah Fernandez (Canada)

6. Beatriz Haddad Maia / Luisa Stefani (Brazil)

7. Marta Kostyuk / Dayana Yastremska (Ukraine)

8. Cristina Bucsa / Sara Sorribes Tormo (Spain)

Mixed doubles

1. Laura Siegemund / Alexander Zverev

2. Ellen Perez / Matthew Ebden

3. Coco Gauff / Taylor Fritz

4. Maria Sakkari / Stefanos Tsitsipas