For Paris 2024, tennis returns to familiar ground - literally: Clay
The Olympic tennis event will be held on red clay for the first time since Barcelona 1992, having been played on hard courts at seven out of the last eight Games. Roland-Garros will play host.
When Olympic tennis returns to red clay next year for Paris 2024, it will mark the first time since Barcelona 1992 that the tennis event at the Olympic Summer Games will be held on the natural, slippery surface, which is known to be the most physically challenging in the sport.
It also marks a special occasion with the event held at Roland-Garros, the home of one of the sport's four majors, commonly called the French Open: It marks just the second time since tennis returned as a medal sport in 1988 that competition will be held at the home of one of the Grand Slams, with the All England Club - host to Wimbledon - the site of tennis at London 2012.
A return to clay could give some top players an advantage, though the sport has fewer "specialists" than it did in previous generations.
But with Rafael Nadal announcing that 2024 could be his final season, will the aptly named "King of Clay" be fit and favoured to claim his first Olympic gold in singles since Beijing 2008? The best-of-three-set Olympic format could prove especially helpful for Nadal should he face physical challenges.
The 2023 French Open is set to get underway on Sunday (28 May), with Nadal missing the event for the first time since 2004 as he takes several months off to get his body healthy.
The event will offer a preview for tennis and Olympic fans who look forward to see the sport in one of its familiar homes as players compete for Olympic medals.
Tennis at Paris 2024: A return to clay
Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" topped the charts and one of the first-ever smartphones were released in 1992, when 16-year-old Jennifer Capriati and unseeded Marc Rosset stormed to Olympic golds in singles in Barcelona.
The victories for Capriati and Rosset marked career-defining moments for them both, and it would be a decade more before the American won a trio of majors in 2001 and 2002, including the French Open (2001).
Nadal was only six years old at the time of Barcelona, but the Spanish native has many connections to those Games, and in 2017 he and (fellow Rio 2016 doubles gold medallist) Marc Lopez re-created the cauldron lighting - with a bow and arrow and the cauldron-lighting archer himself, Antonio Rebollo.
He is arguably the player that would benefit the most from the Games being back on clay, though world No. 1 Iga Swiatek is a two-time champion at Roland-Garros, including last year.
Today, professional tennis features across four major surfaces/venues: Hard courts, clay, grass and indoor (played mostly on hard courts). But each of Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing, Rio and Tokyo 2020 were played on hard, marking a long-awaited return for the surface so common across Europe - and the globe.
Andy Murray on Olympic tennis at a Grand Slam venue
"I love the atmosphere."
Those were the words of eventual Olympic champion Andy Murray in his run to the title in 2012, when the lawns of the All England Club hosted Olympic tennis just weeks after the completion of Wimbledon. Murray had the backing of the home crowd, but the now three-time major champion had yet to strike it big on the game's grandest stages.
He would beat both Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer en route to his gold - the first of two (Rio 2016).
"The different atmosphere is because it's a different competition," Murray said of Wimbledon's Centre Court in Olympic-coloured purple vs. the staid Wimbledon colours. "It's not the same tournament."
He continued: "Different people will have tickets... a lot of the people that were there today, it would have been their first time to Wimbledon. They were obviously very, very excited. The atmosphere was great. But everything just feels different about this because it's the Olympic Games."
And what Roland-Garros will feel like as an Olympic venue is yet to be seen, but it will be home to many memorable knockouts: The venue will not only host tennis 27 July-4 August, but also the final rounds of... boxing, too.