Djokovic Stays Top Of Olympics Race As Rivals Sinner And Alcaraz Continue Chase

Novak Djokovic is inching closer to securing his spot as the top-seeded player in the men's Olympic tennis tournament.

This year's Paris Olympic Games are scheduled to begin on July 26th, with the tennis tournament commencing a day later and will run until August 4th, when the gold medal match will be played.

A total of 64 players will compete at the showpiece event in France's capital, with the tennis event set to be held at the same venue as the clay court Slam - Roland Garros. This means tennis players will make two trips to the home of the French Open this year.

Of the 64 players, 56 will qualify based on the ATP ranking of June 10th, 2024. Consequently, the Olympics Race is pivotal in determining the qualifying players for the tournament. Djokovic has been in the lead for quite some time.

With 7,360 points to his name, he is comfortably at the top. Djokovic's points accumulated from mid-June of 2023. He was a runner-up at Wimbledon but won titles in Cincinnati, the US Open, the Paris Masters, and the ATP Finals to wipe Carlos Alcaraz's lead.

Jannik Sinner has overtaken the Spaniard, who dropped into third place. Sinner has 6,225 points thanks to last month's spectacular Australian Open win. Alcaraz has tallied 5,080 points, with his Wimbledon triumph accounting for most of that total.

The Spaniard can bridge the gap between himself and Sinner if he wins the tournaments he will contest for in the South American clay in February. Just behind Alcaeraz is Daniil Medvedev, who has compiled 4,635 points.

Alexander Zverev and Andrey Rublev sit in 5th and 6th positions, respectively, and have crossed the 3000-point mark. Hubert Hurkacz will cross that barrier if he wins the Marseille Open this week. Grigor Dimitrov and Alex de Minaur are firmly in the Top 10.

Taylor Frtiz has overhauled Ben Shelton's lead as the top-ranked American in the race. The United States is well-represented but can only pick a maximum of four players in the Top 56 (their highest-ranked in the race) to play in Paris.

This means the likes of Frances Tiafoe, Sebastian Korda, Christopher Eubanks, Mackenzie McDonald, and Alex Michelsen will have four months to make any inroads.