October 29, 2024

Open Court

MORE TENNIS THAN YOU'LL EVER NEED

Novak Djokovic to headline mixed doubles Olympic event

At the Grand Slam tournaments, the mixed doubles event (up to 64 teams at Wimbledon) is primarily the domain of doubles specialists and a few higher-ranked women’s singles players.

Nick Kyrgios and Venus Williams being a notorious recent exception, of course.

But at the Olympics, with only a 16-player draw and all players required already to be entered in other events, it’s a bit of a different animal.

But there is still an Olympic medal at stake. In Rio in 2016, Rafael Nadal and Garbiñe Muguruza were entered – if you can imagine – before they ended up withdrawing.

That would have been something to see.

In Tokyo, Novak Djokovic (who is not playing men’s doubles) has decided to have the “full experience” and has signed up to play the mixed with Nina Stojanovic.

The draw is just out.

It is not a great draw for Team Canada.

16 teams, 4 matches, 3 medals

Here are the teams signed on so far. They go by order of their combined rankings – singles or doubles, whichever is best.

(Those who are in initially are listed on their current rankings, which were used for seeding purposes).

Other duos thinking of playing have until 9 a.m. Tuesday Tokyo time (8 p.m. EDT) to sign up.

As well, there is one spot allocated to the host nation. If Kei Nishikori and Naomi Osaka decided to take it, that would be something else. They could also enter with their own rankings.

Here are the teams entered, according to the Olympic website

The Japanese team of Shibahara and McLachlan qualify on their own rankings. So there may be another pickup team from Japan.

1. FRA: Kristina Mladenovic (5) / Nicolas Mahut (FRA) (3) (Total: 8)
2. GRE: Maria Sakkari (19) / Stefanos Tsitsipas (4) (Total: 23)
3. USA: Bethanie Mattek-Sands (13) / Rajeev Ram (10) (Total: 23)
4. ROC: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (18) / Andrey Rublev (7) (Total: 25)
5. ROC: Elena Vesnina (55/PR 1) / Aslan Karatsev (24) (Total: 25)
6. POL: Iga Swiatek (8) / Lukasz Kubot (18) (Total: 25)
7. AUS: Ashleigh Barty (1) / John Peers (25) (Total: 26)
8. CAN: Gabriela Dabrowski (14) / Félix Auger-Aliassime (15) (Total: 29)
9. CRO: Darija Jurak (19) / Ivan Dodig (12) (Total: 31)
10. ESP: Paula Badosa (29) / Pablo Carreño Busta (11) (Total: 40)
11. BRA: Luisa Stefani (23) / Marcelo Melo (18) (Total: 41)
12. ARG: Nadia Podoroska (38) / Horacio Zeballos (4) (Total: 42)
13. SRB: Novak Djokovic (1) / Nina Stojanovic (SRB) (42) (Total: 43)
14. JPN: Ena Shibahara (10) / Ben McLachlan (38) (Total: 48)
15. KAZ: Yaroslava Shvedova (454/ PR 14) / Andrey Golubev (35) (Total:489) (49)
16. GER: Laura Siegemund (33) / Kevin Krawietz (20) (Total: 53)

_____________________CURRENT CUTOFF_____________________

FRA: Fiona Ferro (49) – Pierre-Hugues Herbert (7) (Total: 56)
AUS: Samantha Stosur (99/SR 26) / Luke Saville (32) (Total: 131)(58)
USA: Nicole Melichar (9) / Austin Kracijek (50) (Total: 59)
GBR: Heather Watson (70) / Joe Salisbury (10) (Total: 80)
ESP: Sara Sorribes Tormo (53) / Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (34) (Total: 87)
TPE: Latisha Chan (18) / Yen-Hsun Lu (548/PR 71) (Total: 568)(89)
BLR: Aryna Sabalenka (4) / Ilya Ivashka (90) (Total: 94)
GER: Anna-Lena Friedsam (54) / Tim Puetz (40) (Total: 94)
COL: Maria Camila Osorio Serrano (94) / Robert Farah (4) (Total: 98)
ITA: Camila Giorgi (76) / Lorenzo Sonego (26) (Total: 102)
ITA: Sara Errani (107) / Fabio Fognini (29) (Total: 136)
CZE: Katerina Siniakova (2) / Tomas Machac (148) (Total: 150)
IND: Sania Mirza (137/PR 9) / Sumit Nagal (144) (Total: 297)(153)
POL: Alicja Rosolska  (106) / Kamil Majchrzak (112) (Total: 218)
BRA: Laura Pigossi (190) / Marcelo Demoliner (48) (Total: 238)

 

 

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