Tokyo 2020 Olympic Tennis: draws, nominations and key players

With less than a week to go until the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Tennis Event, players from all over the world are donning their national colours, adjusting to life in the Olympic Village and hitting the practice courts at Ariake Tennis Park.

When does the Olympic Tennis Event start?

The Olympic Tennis Event runs for nine days, from Saturday 24 July – the day after the Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony – until Sunday 1 August 2021.

Play starts at 11:00 local time on the first six days of the event, and 12:00 for the final three days, which will feature the 10 medal matches.

Visit the ITF's Tokyo 2020 Olympic Tennis Event website for more detailed schedule information.

Where can I find the draws? 

The Tokyo 2020 men’s and women’s singles and doubles draws took place on Thursday 22 July.
Click the links below to view the draws on the ITF website:

Men's draws
Women's draws

The draws are also available on the Tokyo 2020 website.

What about mixed doubles? 

The mixed doubles event will take place from Wednesday 28 July to Sunday 1 August, featuring 16 teams comprised of players already nominated for the singles or doubles events, with a maximum of two teams per nation.

The mixed doubles entry list will close on Tuesday 27 July. The 15 teams with the best combined rankings – in either singles or doubles, whichever is higher – will receive direct acceptances, along with one host nation spot that guarantees Japan at least one team in the draw.

The four highest-ranked teams will then be seeded, and the draw will take place later that day.

Has anything changed to the format since Rio 2016?

Yes - in both the men's singles and all doubles draws. For the first time, the men's singles gold medal match will be a best-of-three-tiebreak-sets final, having previously been best-of-five. Doubles matches will also be best-of-three, but in Tokyo the third set will be a match tiebreak to 10 points.

Who will be playing in Tokyo? 

The Olympic Tennis Event will feature 193 players nominated by 46 nations. To read more about the qualification and nomination process, please read this primer.

The final entry list is available here.

From this point, any withdrawals from the singles and doubles draws prior to the first round will be replaced by players/teams already nominated for other events, providing that nation quotas in the draw is not exceeded.

Star players

Two names you will certainly hear time and again in Tokyo: Novak Djokovic and Naomi Osaka.

Djokovic won bronze at Beijing 2008 but fell to Juan Martin del Potro in the bronze medal play-off at London 2012 and was felled by the Argentine again in the first round at Rio 2016. The Serb has gold in his sights at Tokyo 2020 and, if all goes to plan, he will join Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams as just the fifth player to complete the ‘career golden slam’ in singles.

After her withdrawal from Roland Garros and Wimbledon, it will be a joy to see Naomi Osaka back on a tennis court, especially on home turf in Tokyo as she fulfils her dream of becoming an Olympian. “I have allowed myself to dream that dream of winning the gold medal,” said the 23-year-old earlier this year.

Gold medal defences

Three players are hoping to defend their Olympic titles here in Tokyo: Andy Murray (singles), Elena Vesnina (doubles) and Bethanie Mattek-Sands (mixed doubles).

Murray became the first player in history to defend an Olympic singles title after triumphs at London 2012 and Rio 2016. Only Venus and Serena Williams have won three Olympic gold medals in the same event, winning the women's doubles in 2000, 2008 and 2012. Should Murray match that feat, he would become the first tennis player in Olympic history to win three consecutive golds in the same event.

First-timers

Egypt will be represented at the Olympic Tennis Event for the first time by Mohammed Safwat and Mayar Sherif in men’s and women’s singles draws respectively. Both qualified for Tokyo 2020 by winning gold at the African Games back in 2019.

World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty is taking part in her first Olympic Games, and she can’t wait to get going. The Australian is one of 11 Grand Slam singles champions taking part.

Former medallists

Fourteen players taking part at Tokyo 2020 know what it takes to win medals for their nation. Seven players at this year’s event have won medals at previous Olympic Games, while a further seven have won medals at the Youth Olympic Games.

Previous Olympic Medallists

Novak Djokovic (singles bronze, Beijing 2008)
Petra Kvitova (singles bronze, Rio 2016)
Bethanie Mattek-Sands (mixed doubles gold, Rio 2016)
Andy Murray (singles gold, London 2012, Rio 2016)
Kei Nishikori (singles bronze, Rio 2016)
Rajeev Ram (mixed doubles silver, Rio 2016)
Elena Vesnina (doubles gold, Rio 2016)

Previous Youth Olympic Medallists

Karen Khachanov (doubles silver, Nanjing 2014)
Kamil Majchrzak (singles gold, mixed doubles bronze, Nanjing 2014)
Maria Camila Osorio Serrano (singles bronze, Buenos Aires 2018).
Jelena Ostapenko (doubles bronze, Nanjing 2014)
Andrey Rublev (singles bronze, doubles silver, Nanjing 2014)
Iga Swiatek (doubles gold, Buenos Aires 2018)
Zheng Saisai (singles silver, Singapore 2010)