The Olympic torch may be extinguished, but tennis is still ablaze with controversy. At the epicenter of the storm is Novak Djokovic, the freshly minted Olympic champion. Djokovic’s historic Olympic gold was overshadowed by the lack of ranking points and prize money. Unlike ATP or WTA events, the ITF-run Olympics offers neither, despite its immense prestige for players. This has sparked debate, especially given the high regard players hold for Olympic participation. Many advocate for rule changes to encourage greater involvement. While previously Coco Gauff’s coach Brad Gilbert criticized this rule, Andy Roddick is the latest addition to condemn it.

On August 6, Roddick hosted an episode named “2024 OLYMPICS RECAP” of his Served podcast. The episode was intended to reflect back at the “interesting” Olympics week. Aptly describing this year’s Summer Games, Andy said, “I think this Olympics was about the best it could be, for tennis. There is a lot, there is a lot to pay attention to if you are a tennis fan. But this was just full of like fun, good, interesting, drama, storylines.”

After discussing a few surprising triumphs at the Games, Roddick put forth a point: “…I think, there is nobody that can tell me that Novak shouldn’t get some benefit to his ranking,” for playing the Olympics and representing his country. “We used to have points, we took him away,” he further added.

“There’s nothing to show for him(Novak). He should have points at least. No one’s getting paid. I’m not saying anyone should get paid you should not get paid to play in the Olympics at least not directly and but like you should have points,” the former U.S. Open champion said while discussing Djokovic’s Olympic performance.

Alluding to this strange rule, Roddick further added, “It’s no disrespect that any playing that but it’s the strength of draws is weak and they’re still giving out 500 points to the winner. I can’t be told that Novak doesn’t deserve more points for what he did at the Olympics. You’re playing the same game the best play anytime you get all the best players that are taking it as seriously as possible in one place. And you’re beating them; you should get something like that’s it’s just dumb I don’t get it they should get points.”

This comes just two days after Gauff’s coach, Gilbert, shared the same opinion on X, “Absolutely ridiculous. No points. should be 1500 points to winners in singles and doubles. Used to have points, I believe, was, 750 to the winner.” 

This is probably one of the reasons why many players have chosen to opt out of the biggest sports platform, the Games! At the top of that list are Frances Tiafoe, Ben Shelton, Sebastian Korda, Ons Jabeur, Aryna Sabalenka, Madison Keys, and many others. Instead, some players chose to play in different tournaments, which will add more points and have a significant impact on their career ranking. Take Korda, for example, who withdrew from the Olympics and, in the meantime, collected 500 points by winning the Citi Open on August 5 and even climbed to a higher career rank (No. 20). 

This vocal backlash highlights the need for Olympic tennis reform. Will the governing bodies listen, or will this ‘ridiculous’ rule continue to tarnish the sport’s pinnacle event? A few years ago, even Djokovic shared his candid remarks on the subject!

Djokovic wants to “encourage people to rethink” of the Olympic rules

Skipping the Olympics to play to gain points in the traditional tours is not new for the players. If one goes back to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, a similar situation unfolded where many players, including John Isner, chose to withdraw from the Games and focus on other ATP Tournaments. Referring to this act, Djokovic shared his perspective on the matter, saying, “That was one of the debates, I think, whether or not we should have points in the Olympic Games.”

Furthermore, Djokovic added, “To be quite frank, I don’t see a reason why not. You know, we have the best players in the world participating in arguably the fifth Grand Slam. It’s of that important for all of us, even more, because it happens every four years. I would definitely encourage people to rethink of getting points out there.”

As more and more respected voices unite to point out this glaring defect in the Olympic rules, hopefully we might soon see a solution, probably by the 2028 Olympics!