It’s difficult to determine where the Olympics rank in the hierarchy of prestigious tennis tournaments. On the one hand, winning a gold medal is a high honor for any athlete. The games occur only quadrennially, as opposed to ATP Tour events and the Grand Slams, which are held every year.
On the other hand, tennis was only reintroduced as an Olympic sport in 1988, so it doesn’t have the historical status of Wimbledon, for instance. Furthermore, the best-of-three rather than a best-of-five set format makes it feel less weighty and leads to wonkier results—Karen Khachanov has a silver medal to his name, while the GOAT, Novak Djokovic, has nothing more than a bronze.
Also working against the Olympics: The rest of the tennis calendar carries on as if they don’t exist.
World No. 14 and 21-year-old American Ben Shelton is one of many eligible players skipping the Olympics this year. “I want to prepare and really get ready for the U.S. Open,” Shelton said in a press conference. “Having to go back to Europe to play on clay, a different surface, it messes up a few lead-up tournaments to the U.S. Open.”
Shelton is the top seed in the draw at the Atlanta Open this week among a field consisting only of players who didn’t qualify for or chose not to participate in the Olympics.
This year, that list is fairly long. American Frances Tiafoe gave a similar reason as Shelton: prioritizing preparation for the U.S. Open. Former women Grand Slam finalists Emma Raducanu and Ons Jabeur cited health concerns for their absences. So did Aryna Sabalenka and Andrey Rublev, although being Belarusian and Russian, respectively, they would not have been allowed to compete under their countries’ flags.
Another factor in the mass exodus from the competition could be the change in court surfaces. ATP events in April and May are played on slower clay courts that benefit players who hit with topspin and play longer rallies, and in June the tour shifts to faster, lower-bouncing grass courts that reward aggressive play. The whiplash continues this month, as the Paris Olympics will take players back to the famous clay courts of Roland Garros just two weeks after Wimbledon.
Rafael Nadal, who won a gold medal in 2008 and is nearing retirement, skipped the grass season to prepare for Paris, where he’s won the French Open 14 times.
"I think they fit [the Olympics] into the tennis schedule in a complicated way," Shelton said of the Games.
It feels like there’s always some excuse for not participating in the Olympics. In 2016, there were concerns about the Zika virus among some athletes in Rio. In 2021, the pandemic discouraged participation—or prohibited it, in the case of those who tested positive.
But rarely mentioned is the prize money that players leave on the table by trying for a medal instead.
Jannik Sinner, back when he was still a teenager, did not play in the 2021 Olympics and was therefore able to participate in the Washington Open. He faced a somewhat diminished field containing just eight other top 40 players, as opposed to the 16 that participated in both the previous iteration of the event in 2019 and the subsequent one in 2022. Sinner won the 2021 tournament and earned $351,000 in prize money, which accounted for more than 10% of his career winnings at the time.
Sinner was set to compete in the 2024 Olympics but had to recently pull out due to a tonsillitis diagnosis.
Casper Ruud also skipped Tokyo and was able to play two additional ATP Tour events at Gstaad and Kitzbuhel. The Norwegian won both, earning 41,000 euros at each and just shy of $100,000 combined. "I’m still pretty young and both believe and hope I can participate in more Olympics in my career," Ruud said at the time of his decision to withdraw.
In addition to the prize money, Ruud also earned 250 ATP ranking points for each of his titles, which helped him rise a few spots and get higher seeds in future tournaments. "@CasperRuud98 you are a good player. But we all know you stealing points through those tournaments haha," tweeted Nick Kyrgios.
Those points were crucial to the advancement of Ruud’s career. At the 2022 French Open, the difference separating No. 8 seed Ruud and No. 9 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime was a mere 120 points, and Ruud had won 500 of his points during the clay court swing that overlapped with the 2021 Olympics, while Auger-Aliassime competed in Tokyo and lost in the first round.
In Grand Slams, top-eight seeds are guaranteed to not play another top-eight seed until at least the quarterfinals. Ruud, in fact, advanced to the 2022 French Open final without facing a single top-10 opponent.
Auger-Aliassime, though, had the privilege of playing No. 5 seed Nadal in the fourth round. He became only the third man to take Nadal to five sets at Roland Garros, but narrowly lost.
Ruud’s prize money for the tournament: $1.2 million. Auger-Aliassime’s: $236,000.
Despite the financial opportunity cost, most top players are still participating in the 2024 Olympics.
"I know if I’m thinking strictly about my personal career, it's better to go to Canada and prepare on hard courts," Daniil Medvedev told reporters. "But when I'm 40, if I can say I played in Tokyo Olympics, Paris Olympics, Los Angeles Olympics and I had a lot of fun in my life and my career, I’m going to be happy."
The results of previous Olympic tournaments should provide greater encouragement for players outside of the top tier to go for gold. Nicolas Massu won the 2004 gold medal despite spending most of his career outside of the ATP top 30. Andy Murray was only able to break through thrice in Grand Slams while battling the big three, but he won gold medals in both 2012 and 2016. Alexander Zverev has yet to win a major, but won gold in 2021.
Anything can happen at the Olympics. Just ask Djokovic, who lost to then-No. 11 ranked Pablo Carreno Busta in the bronze medal match in Tokyo. An Olympic gold is the one item missing from his resume.
"The Paris Olympics are very important,” Djokovic said earlier this year. “The Olympics have always been a priority for me.”
