By Matt Hill
Every four years, tennis gets an extra slam with the Olympic games but unfortunately, not everyone feels the same way or is just injured or fatigued after two grand slams. The Paris Olympics are underway and the tennis competition will begin Saturday and there are some huge names not in Paris and that is a huge part of the story. On the women’s side Aryna Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur, opted to play a 500 event in Washington, D.C. and even though that is a big event, Alexander Zverev came out this week and said “I would never play a 500 event over the Olympics.” Zverev happens to be a former Washington champion. He is also an Olympic gold medalist. A lot of the American players took a pass and entered Washington, including Madison Keys and on the men’s side, Ben Shelton, Sebastian Korda and Frances Tiafoe.
The big story in the last few days have been the pull outs right before the Olympics. Holger Rune withdrew, then Andy Murray withdrew. The shocker came Thursday as Elena Rybakina, who was probably a favorite to medal, withdrew because of illness. We also can’t forget about world No. 1 Jannik Sinner who pulled out because tonsilitis, leaving a huge hole in the draw and probably making Carlos Alcarax a heavy favorite on the men’s side and Iga Swiatek and even bigger favorite on the women’s side. It would be nice to have an Olympics where all the top players are there, but compared to sports like swimming, gymnastics and track and field, tennis just doesn’t get the same recognition as an Olympic sport. Despite this, tennis was front and center in the opening ceremony on Friday.
Coco Gauff was named an Olympic flag bearer along with NBA superstar LeBron James for the United States for the Opening Ceremony. This did get some criticism in the United States this week and a lot of it was confusion. Two Olympic athletes, Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky, were mentioned in multiple tweets on how this was an injustice. Truth is, Biles had the honor in 2021 and Ledecky has a race on Saturday and it would have been too much for her to be out the night before. You also have to acknowledge that Covid is still a real thing and that being in a group of thousands of people may not be the best for you. I think when you take those two people out, the choices get slimmer and Gauff did win a major in the last 12 months. She is also a leader. I think she is more that worthy of carrying that flag.
Without further ado, let’s preview the tournament starting with the men.
MENS PREVIEW: ALCARAZ TRYING FOR SUMMER TO REMEMBER
Men’s Predictions
2nd Round: Djokovic over Nadal in 3 sets
Quarters: Djokovic over Tsitsipas, Zverev over Musetti, Ruud over Medvedev, Alcaraz over Tabilo
Semifinals: Zverev over Djokovic, Alcaraz over Ruud
Bronze: Ruud over Djokovic
Gold: Alcaraz over Zverev
Carlos Alcaraz is having the summer for the ages, or at least is on his way. The 21-year-old Spainard has won Roland Garros and Wimbledon already, and with the Olympics in play this year in addition to the US Open, he has a real chance at having possibly the greatest summer in tennis since Steffi Graf in 1988 when she won the golden slam. Throwing the Australian Open out, which is played during most people’s winter, the summer of Carlos Alcaraz is on its way to coming to fruition.
Sweeping all four summer major events is going to be tough. Even if he wins at Roland Garros, he will probably not be the favorite in New York because he will probably be spent after this summer and players like Danil Medvedev seem to really step up in the Big Apple. Still, though, it would be one of the greatest accomplishments in tennis and maybe the greatest when you factor in the gravity of winning Olympic gold. With Sinner out, he becomes a solid favorite to win the top prize. I don’t think the pressure is going to get to him, I think he is going to be ready for the challenge.
I think when people saw the draw they were stunned when Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic ended up in the same draw in a possible second round matchup. Now, I don’t want to start on conspiracy theories, but the fact Djokovic was scheduled to play Andy Murray in the first round before he dropped out and then play Nadal. To me that looks like the ITF is trying to get attention for this tournament that quite frankly is falling under the radar in this Olympic. Tennis is not even on linear television in the United States this year until the gold medal finals and those are on taped delay. This would have been great attention for the tournament, but also unfair to Djokovic. I think Djokovic will get through and as I was writing this there were reports of a “possible” Nadal injury and we won’t touch that either. I think Djokovic will get through, but will be spent by the time this tournament gets to the medal rounds. Djokovic is going to have a lot of pressure because he wants this gold medal more anything, but if he really wanted it he probably should have skipped Wimbledon, played a warm-up tournament, and focus on the Olympics. If Nadal and Djokovic do play, one good thing for Nadal is he is in clay form having made the finals in Bastad. I still like Djokovic to come through, but that match may come to bite Djokovic later in the tournament.
I like a rematch of the Roland Garros final between Alcaraz and Zverev. Zverev is the defending gold medalist but I don’t think that is going to matter. I have Casper Ruud winning the bronze I just think Ruud is going to be very excited for this Olympics being on clay. It definitely puts him in the conservation. A darkhorse I believe is Lorenzo Musetti, who made the semifinals at Wimbledon.
IT’S A BATTLE FOR SILVER AND BRONZE ON THE WOMEN’S SIDE
Women’s Olympic Tennis Predictions
Quarters: Swiatek over Collins, Muchova over Navarro, Krejcikova over Andreeva, Gauff over Putintseva
Semis: Swiatek over Muchova, Krejcikova over Gauff
Bronze: Muchova over Gauff
Gold: Swiatek over Krejcikova
We have gone in length about how Iga Swiatek is the most domiant player on clay and since this tournament is at Roland Garros, where she won four of the last five years, there is no doubt, even with nemeses Jelena Ostapenko and Danielle Collins in her draw, she is the heavy favorite on this surface to win gold. So, I ask the question? Who is going to win silver and bronze?
There is a lot of depth right now we are not in a Big 3 or Big 4 era anymore in women’s tennis. With Rybakina, Sablenka and Jabeur out, chances to medal are going to be out there for players to take advantage of. Let’s talk about Coco Gauff because you might be surprised by looking at these predictions. Gauff is the No. 2 player in the world, mostly due to her performance last summer in the North American hardcourt season. I do not really like her form right and how she has played this summer. I also don’t think she can beat Iga Swiatek on clay. (Of course nobody can) I just think there are better clay courters than her. She is good on clay, but I think she has become more of a hard court player in the last year. I know picking a young lady to lose in the bronze medal match is not a very good thing, but the pressure that is going to be on her for being the flag bearer is going to be enormous. Her draw is pretty good, probably easier than Swiatek’s. I do have her losing to Karolina Muchova in the bronze medal match and I will tell you why next paragraph.
Muchova is coming off injuries but looks to be back in form after reaching the final of Palmero Sunday, losing in three sets to Qinwen Zheng, who will also be a threat to medal. I was very impressed with how she played Zheng being one of her first tournaments back. I believe she is going to have a great Olympics. She was probably on her way to becoming one of the game’s elite players when she was injured. I just really like her chances to medal. There is always a surprise in Olympic tennis. I think Muchova is the surprise. I have Barbora Krejickova winning the silver. I know it is hard to go back-to-back in big events when you have been under the radar, but she is also on a roll and this is a depleted draw. I think all of that gives her a great chance to medal plus she does not have to play Swiatek until the final. We do have two risky picks, but remember the gold medalist in 2021 was Belinda Bencic, so it wouldn’t be out of character for either one of these players to medal.
