Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal might be bidding farewell to the Olympic Games in Paris this summer, but there has been no room for sentiment from organisers. Both icons have two Olympic gold medals to their names, with Murray having famously won in London 2012 before defending his title four years later in Rio.
Nadal won the singles title in Beijing in 2008, and then teamed up with Marc Lopez in Brazil to win the doubles crown in 2016.
But despite their past success, neither player has been named amongst the 16 seeds for the tournament, raising the possibility of a nightmare first round draw.
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Overall, 64 players will represent their country in the men’s singles draw at Roland Garros, meaning that whoever prevails will have to go through six matches. And in the first round fans could even be treated to a titanic clash between Novak Djokovic and either Murray or Nadal, with the Serbian having publicly expressed his desire to win a first Olympic title in France.
Murray, 37, has thus far been coy as to whether the event will be his last before retirement. And having dropped down to No.121 in the world and won just seven competitive matches all year, in reality the Scot can have few complaints about being omitted from the seedings.
He was denied a fitting farewell to Wimbledon this month, forced to withdraw from the men’s singles after picking up an injury at Queen’s. However, he was able to play one final match on Centre Court after teaming up with brother Jamie in the men’s doubles.
Nadal, 38, is now down as low as 161 in the world, after two years of being plagued by injury issues. He too pulled out of SW19 in order to prepare for Paris, and showed glimpses of a return to form last week before being beaten in the final of the Bastad Open by Nuno Borges.
Like Murray, Nadal has already confirmed it will be his final Olympic tournament this summer, and as well as playing singles he will form a potentially iconic doubles pairing with Carlos Alcaraz. However, after his latest showing in Sweden, he cast doubt over his current physical capability.
“It has been a long week with long matches,” he said. “Even if my body, I don’t have damage, that’s important — but mentally and physically, I am not used to playing four days in a row and playing long matches.”
Current world No.1 Jannik Sinner will top the billing, ahead of Djokovic. Despite winning the French Open at the same venue in June, Alcaraz has only been seeded third, ahead of Alexander Zverev and Daniil Medvedev, because of his world ranking. Djokovic could face Alcaraz in the semi-finals and cannot meet Sinner before the final.
Paris 2024 Men’s singles seeds: 1 Jannik Sinner; 2 Novak Djokovic; 3 Carlos Alcaraz; 4 Alexander Zverev; 5 Daniil Medvedev; 6 Alex De Minaur; 7 Hubert Hurkacz; 8 Casper Ruud; 9 Taylor Fritz; 10 Stefanos Tsitsipas; 11 Tommy Paul; 12 Ugo Humbert; 13 Holger Rune; 14 Lorenzo Musetti; 15 Sebastian Baez; 16 Gael Fils.
