Swiatek, Gauff have Olympics on their mind as 2024 season gets underway
The tennis event at the Paris Olympics will be held at Roland-Garros this year
Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek
The world’s top players have all descended in Melbourne and are putting the final touches to their preparations for the first Grand Slam of the 2024 season, the Australian Open. The qualifiers got completed on Friday and main draw begins on Sunday as 128 men and 128 women chase one of the biggest prizes on the tennis calendar.
But tennis players have an extra big prize to chase in 2024 – the Olympic medals. The Paris Olympics will take place in July-August and tennis players will return to Stade Roland-Garros in the end of July as they aim to etch their names in tennis history.
One of the goals I wrote down on my vision note – in my phone – was to win a medal in the Olympics.
Coco Gauff
Two of world’s three women, No 1 Iga Swiatek and No 3 Coco Gauff both spoke about the importance of the Olympic Games in respect to their goals for 2024 as they spoke to the press in Melbourne on Media Day.
“One of the goals I wrote down on my vision thing, vision note – in my phone – was to win a medal in the Olympics,” 19-year-old Gauff, who won her first Grand Slam at the US Open in September, said. “For me, I’ll be completely honest, I don’t really care what event it is in. I feel like a gold, silver, or bronze, whatever medal it is, is one of those things it doesn’t matter. Well, it does matter. Obviously I want to win in singles. I feel like I would appreciate it just as much whether it was in singles or doubles. It’s not the same to me as a slam I guess in a way. I just put I want a medal at any of the events.”
Gauff, who usually combines singles and doubles through the season, said she would like to play all three events in Paris – singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
“Ideally I would want to play all three. We’ll have to see where I fall in the lineup of ranking-wise and all of that. That definitely is a priority. The Olympics have been a priority in both singles and doubles. Jess already plays with Austin, so I imagine I’m going to play with Rajeev if he wants to play. I’d have to look. Last year was two mixed teams, last Olympics, but I don’t know if it’s the same thing. It would be pretty cool. I would be happy to play with whoever. I’ll try my best to hold my side of the court.”
“For sure I’d love to have a good result on the Olympics” – Swiatek
World No 1 Iga Swiatek, who is a four-time Grand Slam champion, is another top player who the Olympics high on her goal list for 2024, even though she does not want to look too far down the road.
“The only thing that is different (this year) is the Olympics. For sure I’d love to have a good result on the Olympics. But I don’t see a point of looking at what’s going to happen in July because we have plenty of tournaments that are important before. I’m kind of taking it step by step. I’m not looking that much forward. This year I’m just thinking about until the end of Australian Open, then I’m going to think about my next goals.”
