Paris will stage two of this summer time’s nice sporting occasions, with subsequent week’s French Open providing gamers a return ticket to Roland Garros for the Olympic tennis competitors.
Rankings on the finish of the match will decide whether or not gamers make the minimize for July’s Video games.
BBC Sport seems to be at the way it all works – and who might miss out.
How does Olympic qualification work?
There will likely be 5 occasions on the Paris Video games – males’s singles and doubles, girls’s singles and doubles, and blended doubles. Every nation can qualify as much as 12 gamers, with 4 males and 4 girls allowed to compete within the singles.
Of the 64 gamers in every singles draw, 56 will qualify from the world rankings on 10 June.
Some gamers who qualify could select to skip the Olympics to play on the ATP and WTA Tour, which offer rating factors, whereas some will miss out due to the power in depth of their nation.
Anybody within the high 70 will really feel they’ve an excellent probability of qualifying for the Video games – and profitable a spherical or two on the French Open might make all of the distinction.
Who might play for Nice Britain in singles?
World quantity 33 Cameron Norrie and Jack Draper, ranked thirty fifth, don’t have anything to fret about and have expressed a need to participate.
Dan Evans is presently ranked sixtieth and may really feel comparatively assured with no factors to defend at Roland Garros.
Because it stands, Katie Boulter would be the sole British consultant within the girls’s singles, until world quantity 91 Harriet Dart could make a late run.
Heather Watson will possible make the group as a doubles participant to companion Boulter.
What about Andy Murray?
Andy Murray stands at 75 within the rankings however could be eligible for one among two Worldwide Tennis Federation locations reserved for former Grand Slam champions and Olympic gold medallists.
Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka may need a kind of. Nadal would obtain the primary place on the power of the variety of these titles he has received, whereas Murray would pip fellow three-time main champion Wawrinka due to his two Olympic singles golds.
And Emma Raducanu?
There’s a very slim path into the Video games for Britain’s Raducanu, however her choice to skip the French Open to organize for the upcoming grass and hard-court seasons would appear to point she won’t be pursuing it.
Having missed eight months after surgical procedure, she will enter with a protected rating of 103, however that might nearly actually be too low for direct entry.
Competitors for the Grand Slam champion locations is prone to be fierce on the ladies’s facet. Naomi Osaka, Angelique Kerber and Simona Halep are all a number of main winners, though Osaka and Kerber even have protected rankings they might make the most of.
Who might play for Nice Britain in doubles?
If 4 British males qualify to play singles, it doubtlessly turns into extra simple.
World quantity 5 Joe Salisbury and Tenth-ranked Neal Skupski might full the utmost six-man group: Skupski to play with Evans, with whom he has loved earlier success, and Salisbury with Murray, having solely been denied a semi-final place in Tokyo by a sensible Croatian comeback from Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig.
But when Evans doesn’t make the group, it turns into trickier, particularly as Salisbury and Skupski are open in regards to the truth they would like to play collectively.
“We positively get pleasure from enjoying collectively and suppose we are able to do properly. I feel that might be the primary selection for each of us,” Salisbury instructed BBC Sport on the Madrid Open.
“I’ve at all times cherished enjoying with Joe,” Skupski added.
“Each time I get on courtroom with Joe, it is actual particular and hopefully we are able to play the Olympics collectively. We’re simply ready to see what the blokes on the LTA suppose.”
Solely top-10 gamers are assured a spot within the draw, and so Skupski could should match final yr’s run to the French Open quarter-finals to ensure of that place.
Entry is in any other case decided by a pair’s mixed rating, which is calculated by including their singles or doubles rating collectively.
If Murray says he want to play each singles and doubles, it might be a courageous name to disclaim him the chance in what is predicted to be the ultimate match of a glittering profession.
Medals are additionally on provide within the blended doubles, which permits no a couple of pair per nation. The entry listing will likely be drawn up from the rankings within the week earlier than the Video games, with locations solely out there to beforehand chosen gamers. As issues stand, Salisbury and Boulter would have the strongest probability of incomes a spot within the draw, however Boulter could not really feel capable of play in all three occasions.
Who’re the opposite huge names to look at for?
The Olympics will very possible be Nadal’s closing probability to play at his beloved Roland Garros.
It is also Novak Djokovic’s final probability to win a much-desired Olympic gold. He received singles bronze in Beijing in 2008, however has misplaced 3 times on the semi-final stage.
On the ladies’s facet, three-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek has already mentioned she intends to play.
When will the entry listing be determined?
Nationwide Olympic Committees should affirm by 19 June whether or not they wish to take up the locations supplied by the ITF.
The ultimate entry lists will likely be revealed on 8 July, which is the beginning of the second week of Wimbledon.
When does the Olympic tennis happen?
The Paris Olympics happen from Friday, 26 July to Sunday, 11 August.
The tennis is held from 27 July-4 August. The ladies’s gold medal match is on 3 August, with the boys’s the day after.
