The beautiful clay courts of Roland Garros will play host to the 2024 slate of Olympic tennis, beginning on July 27. Paris is playing host to this year’s summer games, and there is no better venue, which might just be the opinion of the top women’s singles player in the world, Iga Swiatek.
That’s because Swiatek has been dominant on clay, winning the French Open earlier this year on these very courts. The world No. 1 player has won three consecutive titles at Roland Garros, and four of the last five. She’s the favorite to win gold, which would be her first. She competed in the 2020 games but hadn’t yet broken out and was bounced in the second round.
The women’s singles bracket isn’t necessarily all wrapped up, though. Swiatek has plenty of competition young and old, including American Coco Gauff, who is the No. 2 women’s player in the world, and Elena Rybakina, who has been ridiculously successful on clay of late as well. Both Gauff and Rybakina have been dominant on the surface, but both have dropped multiple outings directly to Swiatek on clay.
Format-wise, Olympic tennis is similar to the setup of a Grand Slam event. The men’s and women’s singles draws feature 64 competitors, while the doubles brackets have 32 pairs. It’s a single-elimination tournament and, obviously, awards a medal for the top three finishers. We’ll talk about some individual players below, and will have more when the draw and first match schedules come out on July 25.
Iga Swiatek: It can’t be overstated just how good Swiatek has been on clay, especially this season. She’s got the French Open win this year, and has won four of the last five. She also has taken four separate clay court WTA 1000 tournaments this year alone. She hasn’t been as strong on other surfaces, not having won at Wimbledon or the Australian Open, though she took the US Open title in 2022. She first earned the No. 1 ranking in April 2022, and has only let go it briefly since. She’s never lost a match before the fourth round in six appearances at Roland Garros, four of which she won.
Coco Gauff: The absolute best chance at an American taking gold comes in the form of Gauff, the 20-year-old who is currently ranked No. 2 in the world. Gauff’s career highlight was winning the US Open in 2023, but she hasn’t made it to a Slam final this year. Her best finish at the French Open came in 2022, when she made the final but fell to Swiatek in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3. Over the past three years in fact, she’s 15-0 at Roland Garros … against everyone not named Swiatek. Gauff is undoubtedly the top American woman and the heavy favorite over essentially everyone — again, except for Swiatek.
Elena Rybakina: Just how strong has she been on clay? Well, she’s the only one who has proven to be capable of beating Swiatek on the surface, as she accounts for the Pole’s only two losses on clay in 33 showings. Rybakina isn’t the most consistent player, but she’s coming off a semifinals appearance at Wimbledon, made it to the final four in Madrid, and made it to the quarterfinals of the French Open in June. She has what it takes to push Swiatek to the brink on clay, but she has to make it that far first.
Other Americans: While Gauff is the biggest when it comes to American women, she’s joined by others with a shot as well in Jessica Pegula, Danielle Collins, and Emma Navarro. Pegula is the sixth-ranked player in women’s singles and last made the finals of a major on this clay in 2022. Navarro is enjoying her career highest ranking of No. 15 in the world, and is coming off a quarterfinals appearance at Wimbledon, her best.
Finally there’s Collins, who announced that she is retiring at the end of the season at 30 years old. She’s playing some of the best tennis of her career and is ranked ninth in the world, with a 16-4 mark on clay in 2024. Going out on top with a gold medal would be a nice way to do things, but it’s still an uphill battle against this field.
Tennis coverage will be provided by NBC and its various networks and apps. The television broadcasts will be available on CNBC, USA Network and E!, with live streaming on all of Peacock, NBCOlympics.com, NBC.com, the NBC app and the NBC Olympics app. Play begins on Saturday, July 27 and will run through August 3 for the women’s bracket.
Check back on July 25 for updated thoughts on the Olympic tennis draw and first round match schedules.
