All nine Aussie tennis players will play their first round Olympic matches this weekend.
All nine Aussie tennis stars competing at the Paris Olympics will take to the iconic Roland Garros clay courts for the first time this weekend, many of which are drawn against formidable opponents. Tennis action will get underway on Saturday night, with Aussie Matt Ebden drawing the task of trying to knock out Serb ace Novak Djokovic and Daria Saville facing gritty Chinese World No.7 Qinwen Zheng.
Australia’s top-ranked tennis player and Olympic fifth seed, Alex de Minaur, will take the court for the first time on Sunday night AEDT against Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff. The Aussie tennis star leads Struff 4-2 in the pair’s career head-to-head but he was pushed to four sets by the German at the French Open last month.
Even if de Minaur gets through that tough challenge, the Aussie – who will make his Olympic debut after missing out on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics due to Covid – will then realistically face French Open and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals. Things aren’t much easier for his fellow Aussies, with Rinky Hijikata meeting fourth seed Daniil Medvedev and Alexei Popyrin facing 16th seed Chile’s Nicolas Jarry on Saturday. Meanwhile, Australia’s challenge in women’s singles will be headed by Ajla Tomljanovic, who will go toe-to-toe with American second seed Coco Gauff also on Sunday night.
How does tennis at the Olympics work?
Much like for tennis grand slams, there are five different disciplines athletes can enter – men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles. But unlike grand slams, all matches are best-of-three sets regardless of whether they are men’s or women’s singles matches. Although doubles matches will play a tiebreaker to 10 points instead of a third set.
All draws are single-elimination, meaning once a player loses a match they are out, except in the case of the two semifinal losers, who will play off for the bronze medal. Both singles draws have 64 entrants determined by the top 56 in the world rankings on June 10. But due to a country only being able to enter four players, automatic spots can fall to players outside the top 56. There are also four spots reserved for winners of designated qualification tournaments in Asia, Africa and the Americas, plus four wild-card entries.
The men’s and women’s doubles draw each have 32 teams, with a maximum of two teams per country. Qualification is done by a formula that takes into account both doubles and singles rankings, with first preference given to top-10 doubles players who can choose their partner. While the mixed doubles is a 16-team draw determined by combined ranking.
Full Olympics draw for Australian players
Men’s singles first round:
Alex de Minaur vs Jan-Lennard Struff (Germany)
Rinky Hijikata vs Daniil Medvedev (Individual Neutral Athlete)
Alexei Popyrin vs Nicolas Jarry (Chile)
Matthew Ebden vs Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
Women’s singles first round:
Ajla Tomljanovic vs Coco Gauff (USA)
Men’s doubles first round
John Peers/Ebden vs Benjamin Hassan/Hady Habib (Lebanon)
Alexei Popyrin/Alex de Minaur vs Austin Krajicek/Rajeev Ram (USA)
Women’s doubles first round
Ellen Perez/Daria Saville vs Coco Gauff/Jessica Pegula (USA)
Olivia Gadecki/Ajla Tomljanovic vs Mirra Andreeva/Diana Shnaider (Individual Neutral Athlete)
Mixed doubles
