Olympics Men’s Tennis Singles
Credit: Indiatoday.in
Carlos Alcaraz Men’s Tennis Gold Medal (+130)
Already wrote this up in my “2024 Olympics Futures” article but wanted to break it up into a separate tennis writeup. Backing the hottest man on the planet (pause). He may not be ranked as such, only ranked 3rd in the world behind Sinner and Djokovic but in my opinion he is the best player in the world.
Fresh off a French Open win in the beginning of June and a Wimbledon win just a week ago, Alcaraz is playing at the top of his game. He beat Tsitsipas (#9 in the world) in three sets, Sinner (#2 in the world) in five sets and Zverev (#4 in the world) in five sets the claim the French Open title. He also beat Medvedev (#5 in the world) in four sets and Djokovic (#2 in the world) in three sets to claim the Wimbledon title. Carlos has beat 5 top 10 players in his L5 matches and 4 top 5 players in his L4 matches to win two of the biggest tennis tournaments of the year. There is simply no tennis player in the world more in a grove than he currently is.
Something I also want to mention is the Olympic tennis tournament is being played at Roland Garros, the same venue that hosts the French Open. The same venue where Alcaraz just won the title just a month ago. Just in the last month and a half Alcaraz has shown he can beat the best players in the world (beat #1 in Sinner, #2 in Djokovic, #4 in Zverev and #5 in Medvedev) on two totally different surfaces while also beating Sinner and Zverev on clay.
Besides Alcaraz there are three other guys that I feel could have a shot at winning the gold and honestly that’s it. #1 in the world Jannik Sinner, #2 Novak Djokovic and clay court legend Rafal Nadal. Carlos has already beaten Sinner at Roland Garros and has won the L2 head-to-head matchups. Djokovic just got smoked in three sets to Carlos at the Wimbledon final, is recovering from his knee surgery and unfortunately doesn’t look like he is moving as well as he has in the past (which sucks because he is the tennis GOAT and I love watching him play). Lastly, Nadal falls into the same category as Djoker, he is getting older and is also recovering from an injury himself. Only reason I have him on this list is because he has dominated the clay surface better than anyone ever has, winning on this court 14 times and holding a career record of 112-4 at Roland Garros.
I know the law of averages states otherwise, and I don’t like betting the same guy to win every tournament but, in this case, I have to solely due to the fact of how dominate Alcaraz has been the past two months. The guys I mentioned above could give him some trouble, but at the end of the day he is the better tennis player at the moment. It could be anyone’s day at any time, but I like our chances with the young Spainard. GL VAMOS!
UPDATE: When matchups are released I will be posting my individual match picks and predictions as well. The draw will be released in a few days. Same thing goes for doubles.
