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

| by Nurein Ahmed

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.

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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.

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2024 Men's Olympics Race as of February 5th, 2024:

Rank Player Points
1 Novak Djokovic 7360
2 Jannik Sinner 6225
3 Carlos Alcaraz 5080
4 Daniil Medvedev 4635
5 Alexander Zverev 3635
6 Andrey Rublev 3105
7 Hubert Hurkacz 2840
8 Alex de Minaur 2110
9 Grigor Dimitrov 2050
10 Ben Shelton 1790
11 Adrian Mannarino 1685
12 Taylor Fritz 1640
13 Stefanos Tsitsipas 1500
14 Holger Rune 1480
15 Alexander Bublik 1410
16 Tommy Paul 1335
17 Ugo Humbert 1225
18 Sebastian Korda 1155
19 Frances Tiafoe 1100
20 Tallon Griekspoor 1040
21 Felix Auger-Aliassime 920
22 Roman Safiullin 907
23 Christopher Eubanks 902
24 Jiri Lehecka 885
25 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 860
26 Casper Ruud 840
27 Laslo Djere 825
28 Sebastian Baez 820
29 Karen Khachanov 820
30 Nicolas Jarry 810
31 Jack Draper 761
32 Lorenzo Musetti 760
33 Francisco Cerundolo 760
34 Jordan Thompson 721
35 Mackenzie McDonald 715
36 Gael Monfils 715
37 Daniel Evans 700
38 Arthur Fils 697
39 Matteo Arnaldi 675
40 Alexei Popyrin 661
41 Alejandro Tabilo 660
42 Fabian Marozsan 657
43 Sebastian Ofner 655
44 Arthur Cazaux 630
45 Cameron Norrie 620
46 Tomas Machac 616
47 Miomir Kecmanovic 615
48 Alex Michelsen 614
49 Zhizhen Zhang 601
50 Aslan Karatsev 595
51 Pavel Kotov 569
52 Rinky Hijikata 562
53 Alexander Shevchenko 560
54 Flavio Cobolli 558
55 Maximilian Marterer 552
56 Constant Lestienne 544
57 Hugo Gaston 540
58 Taro Daniel 534
59 Borna Coric 524
60 Tomas Martin Etcheverry 515
61 Stan Wawrinka 510
62 Nuno Borges 501
63 Marcos Giron 500
64 Lorenzo Sonego 495
65 Emil Ruusuvuori 495
66 Mariano Navone 484
67 Christopher O'Connell 481
68 Arthur Rinderknech 470
69 Federico Coria 468
70 JJ Wolf 465
71 Brandon Nakashima 460
72 Michael Mmoh 447
73 Max Purcell 445
74 Andy Murray 445
75 Pedro Cachin 441
76 Jaume Munar 435
76 Aleksandar Kovacevic 435
78 Vit Kopriva 432
79 Dominik Koepfer 431
80 Albert Ramos-Vinolas 427
81 Jan-Lennard Struff 425
82 Dominic Thiem 423
83 Juncheng Shang 422
84 Daniel Altmaier 421
85 Alexandre Muller 418
86 Dominic Stricker 417
87 Luciano Darderi 416
88 James Duckworth 414
89 Marton Fucsovics 412
90 Roberto Bautista Agut 411
91 Aleksandar Vukic 408
92 Duje Ajdukovic 402
93 Liam Broady 402
94 Pedro Martinez 400
95 Daniel Elahi Galan 400
96 Luca Van Assche 390
97 Yosuke Watanuki 388
98 Roberto Carballes Baena 386
99 Fabio Fognini 385
100 Terence Atmane 378

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