Patrick Mouratoglou makes bizarre Olympic claim despite Novak Djokovic ‘huge honour’ comment

Tennis players don’t feel that the Olympics is “such an important event” for the sport, according to tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou yet all the big names in the sport line up every four years to represent their country at The Games.

Tennis returned to the Olympic Games in 1998 and a host of the greats have gone on to win gold including the likes of Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray in the men’s competition while Steffi Graf, Venus Williams and Serena Williams have all won the women’s singles event.

The Olympics is back on the sporting calendar next year with Paris hosting the 2024 Games and the biggest names in the business have indicated that they will take part with Alexander Zverev and Belinda Bencic the defending champions.

However, Mouratoglou – who has coached the likes of Serena Williams, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Simona Halep – has a different view about the popularity of tennis as an Olympic sport.

“There is no real connection between tennis and the Olympic Games. A lot of tennis players don’t feel that it’s such an important event for tennis,” he said on Instagram.

“Initially, tennis was at the Olympics, then it got out, and finally, tennis was reintroduced… They feel that a Grand Slam is 100 times more important for a tennis player than the Olympic Games.

“If you look at a lot of other sports, there are not as many important competitions as in tennis. I am no specialist, but in swimming you have the European championship, the world championship and the Olympic Games every four years and all the other events are just to prepare for those ones.

“Tennis? No. Every year you have the Masters 1000, which are extremely important because your ranking depends on that mostly for all the best players. You have the Grand Slams who are incredible institutions. For most of the players to win one Grand Slam would be the highest achievement possible.

“And every four years there is the Olympic Games that look small, not as an event, but for tennis [it is] compared to the Grand Slams.

“We need time and history. When there will be a long time between tennis and the Olympic Games I think players will consider it different.

Yet there is no suggestion that the top tennis players in the world will skip next year’s Paris Games with 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic making it clear he will squeeze in the Olympics in his busy schedule.

An Olympic gold medal remains one of the few things missing from the Serbian’s impressive trophy cabinet with his best performance a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games.

The world No 1 also appeared in the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Games.

Djokovic finished fourth in the 2020 Olympics and his exit in the semi-final to Zverev was one of the most heartbreaking scenes at the Tokyo Games.

“My plan for now is to play the Olympic Games, so I’m hoping that I will be able to play, that I will be ready physically and mentally,” he said recently.

“It’s going to be a very congested and challenging schedule next year, with Roland Garros on clay, Wimbledon on grass, the Olympics on clay and then the US Open and the tournaments before that on hardcourts.

“It’s going to be challenging for players, but my plan is to play the Olympics, because it’s one of the most important events in the history of the sport. That’s where you also represent the country and the feeling of being part of it is a huge honour.”