USA Names Paris Olympics Tennis Squad Including Gauff, Collins, Fritz & Eubanks

USA Names Paris Olympics Tennis Squad Including Gauff, Collins, Fritz & Eubanks

by Nurein Ahmed

The 2024 Paris Olympics will kick off next month, and the U.S. Olympic tennis team has been revealed.

The tennis tournament at the showpiece event in the French capital will be held on the clay of Roland Garros between July 27th and August 4th. The singles draws will feature 64 men and women, of whom 56 will qualify based on their ATP or WTA ranking as of June 10th.

As the deadline for squad submission looms, some countries participating in the Games have formally announced their representatives. In the last week, Spain announced a six-player team featuring four men led by World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz and 2008 Beijing gold medalist Rafael Nadal.

One of the favorites in the men's tournament, Serbia, confirmed that former World No. 1 Novak Djokovic would participate in the event. The 37-year-old, who underwent knee surgery during the French Open, will pursue his first-ever gold medal.

At the same time, we've seen many big names elect not to compete in Paris either because of injury, scheduling challenges, or reasons known to them. These are Aryna Sabalenka, Ons Jabeur, Emma Raducanu, and a handful of Russian players, including Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov.

The USTA, which is the national governing body of tennis in the USA, has finalized the list of American players who will compete at the upcoming Olympics.

The men's team will include Taylor Fritz (top-ranked American ATP player in singles), Tommy Paul, Christopher Eubanks, Marcos Giron, Rajeev Ram and former doubles No. 1 Austin Krajicek.

Fritz, Paul, Eubanks, and Giron will vie for medals in singles, while Ram and Krajicek, and Fritz and Paul, will play doubles. The men's team will be coached by the retired 2012 Olympic gold medalist (doubles) Bob Bryan.

The women's team will consist of Coco Gauff (the top-ranked American WTA player), Jessica Pegula, Danielle Collins, Emma Navarro, and doubles No. 11 Desirae Krawczyk.

Gauff, Pegula, Collins, and Navarro will play in the singles competition, while Gauff and Pegula, and Collins and Krawczyk will play in the doubles tournament. The women's team will be coached by former USA Billie Jean King Cup captain Kathy Rinaldi.

It is pertinent to note that Ben Shelton, Sebastian Korda, Frances Tiafoe, and Madison Keys were all eligible for qualification but declined for various reasons, opening up spots for Eubanks, Giron, and Navarro.

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