Novak Djokovic expressed dissatisfaction with the Olympic participation rules after his victory over Matthew Ebden in round 1 at the 2024 Olympics .
The No. 1 seed, who is aiming to win her first Olympic gold medal, needed just 53 minutes to defeat the Australian 6-0 6-1. Notably, Ebden faced Djokovic as an alternate player.
According to Olympic rules, any player who withdraws from singles after July 19 - and there have been many in the past few days including Andy Murray and Jannik Sinner - can only be replaced by players are competing in another event.
As a result, Ebden, one of the world's top doubles players, played his first singles match in two years against the world No. 1 on Court Philippe Chatrier.
As for Ebden, he welcomed the match with excitement, even though he knew his level could not be compared to Djokovic. That was shown when he pulled his shirt over his head to celebrate when he finally won a game in set 2.
On the contrary, Djokovic wants to see an event with top players. “I don't really understand the rules, they don't really make sense to me,” he said. Honestly, I don't think it's a good image for the sport.
There are many singles players who have had plenty of time to prepare for substitutions and are ready to accept when called upon. I really hope the ITF (International Tennis Federation) along with the Olympics will consider changing this rule.”
However, the organizers also have their reasons. They cited the reason behind this rule, with the International Olympic Committee not wanting to add new athletes so close to the Olympics and emphasized that tennis has a later deadline for personnel changes. many other sports.
The ITF told the PA news agency: “Tennis is one of 32 sports at the Olympics and with 10,500 athletes and 206 National Olympic Committees, logistically it is extremely difficult and there must be time for replacement.
We have worked hard with the IOC to push the deadline as late as possible for the tennis calendar.”
In the second round, Djokovic can face Rafael Nadal if the Spaniard wins against Marton Fucsovics.
As for Nadal, before playing the men's singles match in round 1, he and Carlos Alcaraz competed in the men's doubles event.
Even though they met the 6th seed Argentine pair Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni, with the experience of the two top players, Nadal and Alcaraz won 7-6 (4), 6-4 after 2 sets to win a ticket to the second round.
Nadal could clash with Fucsovics again if the Hungarian tennis player and compatriot Fabian Marozsan beat the Dutch pair of Taloon Griekspoor and Wesley Koolhof.
The opening day of the 2024 Paris Olympics at Roland Garros began in pouring rain, preventing many matches from taking place as scheduled.
