Alcaraz heads Olympic tennis betting after Wimbledon triumph

Fresh off the back of victory over Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon, Carlos Alcaraz is the favourite to claim gold in the men’s singles tennis at the 2024 Olympics as well.

The event begins on July 26 in Paris, with a 64-player draw competing on the clay of Roland Garros for a spot on the podium.

Alcaraz leads the market at $3 with top sports betting sites, but it is a competitive field overall.

Online bookmakers have Australian Open winner Jannik Sinner just behind Alcaraz on $3.75

Beaten Wimbledon finalist Djokovic is also right in the running, with a return of $4 for those who back the 24-time Grand Slam champion.

More realistic medal contenders at Olympics

The recently concluded Wimbledon was seen as a three-horse race by tennis bookies.

Ahead of the tournament, only Alcaraz, Sinner and Djokovic were given realistic odds of winning. At the Olympics, however, bookmakers have their odds much more even.

Alexander Zverev sits in the fourth line of betting at $6, not far behind third-placed Djokovic. Zverev is the defending gold medallist, having ousted the Serbian four years ago.

Behind Zverev, 2008 gold medallist Rafael Nadal pays $9, while clay specialist Casper Ruud sits at $13.

The odds do jump from here, with the next group — Stefanos Tsitsipas, Holger Rune, Daniil Medvedev, Alex de Minaur and Andrey Rublev — all paying between $21 and $29 to win.

Surface change a challenge

Holding the Olympics in late July on clay presents a unique challenge in the tennis calendar.

The ATP Tour just spent over two months on the European clay between April and June, climaxing in the French Open last month.

For the past five weeks, players have been fighting it out on the grass — a very different surface.

Grass has the least friction of all tennis surfaces, meaning that balls bounce lower and faster upon impact with the court. Clay, on the other hand, will cause a tennis ball to slow down and sit up when it bounces.

Switching from grass to clay in such a short span of time, it will be interesting to see which players can adapt quickest.

This explains why the likes of Nadal and Ruud are rated highly in the Olympics odds despite not performing at Wimbledon over the past fortnight.

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