| Photo via USTA
NEW YORK—The United States Tennis Association (USTA) has announced that top-ranked American tennis players will represent the U.S. during the Olympic Summer Games in Paris, France.
At the 131st International Olympics Session (IOC)in Lima, Peru, in 2017, Paris was awarded the Games after multiple withdrawals. Only Paris and Los Angeles were in contention for the 2024 and 2028 multi-sport events. Los Angeles will host them in 2028. The Summer Games will return to the traditional four-year Oympiad cycle after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were postponed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The women’s team includes singles world No. 2 Coco Gauff, No. 5 Jessica Pegula, No. 11 Danielle Collins, No. 17 Emma Navarro, and doubles No. 11 Desirae Krawczyk. Coached by USTA Head of Women’s Tennis Kathy Rinaldi, the U.S. women’s team will feature four singles players in Paris–Gauff, Pegula, Collins, and Navarro–and two doubles teams: Gauff and Pegula, Collins and Krawczyk.
The men’s team includes world singles No. 12 Taylor Fritz, No. 13 Tommy Paul, No. 44 Chris Eubanks, No. 53 Marcos Giron, and world doubles No. 6 Rajeev Ram and No. 15 Austin Krajicek. Coached by 2012 Olympic doubles gold medalist and Davis Cup captain Bob Bryan, the U.S. men’s team will feature four singles players–Fritz, Paul, Eubanks, and Giron–and two doubles teams: Ram and Krajicek, Fritz, and Paul.
The U.S. will also announce its one mixed doubles team that will compete in Paris–taken from the players mentioned earlier–at a later date.
Team nominations are subject to approval by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee and the International Tennis Federation. The United States Paralympic tennis team will be announced in late July.
The tennis competition will be held at Roland Garros from July 27 to Aug. 4, 2024. Since returning as a full medal sport in 1988, the U.S. has won 24 Olympic medals (14 gold) in men’s and women’s tennis–more than any other nation.
Ram, a mixed doubles silver medalist in 2016 in Rio, will compete in his third consecutive Olympics. Competing in their second Games are 2021 Tokyo Olympians Pegula, Paul, Giron, and Krajicek, while Gauff–who was named to compete in 2021 in Tokyo but did not compete after testing positive for COVID-19–Collins, Navarro, Krawczyk, Fritz, and Eubanks will make their Olympic debuts.
Eligible singles players can accept or decline the 2024 Olympic tennis team nomination. If a tennis player declines, the next highest-ranked American singles tennis player has the nomination extended to them.
Tennis was part of the Olympic program from the first modern Olympiad in 1896 until 1924. After a 64-year hiatus, tennis returned to the official Olympic program in 1988, becoming the first sport to feature professional athletes.
–With Ricky Rillera/PDM
