Olympics

The Olympics, or Olympic Games, has hosted a tennis competition every year since 1988, and it's one of the most popular events among tennis players.

Every four years, the Summer Olympics hosts a tennis competition for men's and women’s singles and doubles, as well as mixed doubles. The venue and the court surface change each time based on the host city.

In modern times, tennis has been a regular feature at the Olympics. Since the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, tennis has featured in every competition. However, tennis was not always a preferred event at the Olympics and had an on-off status before 1988.

Initially, tennis featured at the first-ever modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, and it remained on the schedule until 1924. The sport eventually returned in 1968 to coincide with the Open Era and growing professionalization. Yet, tennis was once again taken off the list after 1968, and it wouldn’t be played at the Olympic finals for another 20 years.

Since tennis has become a mainstay of the Olympics since 1988, it has ultimately become a crowd favorite. In addition, the competition’s prestige has a special place for the competition players. Due to this, many current and former Grand Slam winners have won Olympic gold in recent years.

Three-time Grand Slam winner Andy Murray has won the most gold medals in the Open Era. The Brit won at the 2012 London Olympics, played at Wimbledon, and then achieved success at Rio de Janeiro in 2016. However, several other top players have won the men’s singles event, including Rafael Nadal, Andre Agassi, and Alexander Zverev.

Similarly, several players from the women’s elite have won gold at former Olympics. Both Serena Williams and Venus Williams won respective gold medals at the 2000 and 2012 Olympic finals. Other notable winners include Lindsay Davenport, who won in Atlanta, United States, and Steffi Graf.

In 2024, Novak Djokovic completed his lifelong dream by winning an Olympic gold medal after beating Carlos Alcaraz in the final of the men's singles competition.

In the women's singles, Qinwen Zheng of China shockingly won the 2024 Paris Olympics, eliminating the biggest favorite, Iga Swiatek, along the way to winning the gold medal on the Parisian clay.

The men's doubles competition was won by Australia's Matthew Ebden and John Peers in 2024, while women's doubles competition was dominated by Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini from Italy. The mixed doubles gold medals went to the Czech Republic, as Katerina Siniakova and Tomas Machac won the tournament.