As the top seed in the women’s singles draw at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, world number one Iga Swiatek will face a formidable competition.
Swiatek, a five-time Grand Slam champion, is the overwhelming favourite for gold in Paris, having won the past three titles at Roland Garros, where the tennis competition will take place.
The Pole returns off a dismal Wimbledon campaign, but she will be difficult to defeat on her favourite clay, having lost only once on the surface in 2024.
The 23-year-old Swiatek will make her second Olympic appearance after losing in round two to Paula Badosa at the delayed Tokyo 2020 event three years ago. World No. 2 Coco Gauff will make her Olympic debut after withdrawing from Tokyo due to a positive COVID test. The 20-year-old will be a leading medal contender in all three events and has experience at Roland Garros, reaching the final in 2022.
Rybakina, a Kazakh ace, narrowly missed out on a medal in Tokyo, coming fourth, and will be eager to improve that performance at the very least this summer.
Jasmine Paolini completes the top four seeding, following a summer push that saw her reach the finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
Three of the top eight seeds are American players, and Team USA has a formidable tennis squad.Joining Gauff in the top eight is fifth seed Jessica Pegula and eighth seed Danielle Collins, with both women potential medal contenders in Paris. US No 5 Emma Navarro – playing in the absence of Madison Keys, another notable player who is skipping the event – is the 11th seed. Zheng Qinwen and Maria Sakkari round out the remaining seeds inside the top eight, while Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova is set to be seeded ninth. Sabalenka is the only top-10 star currently set to miss action but plenty of others in the top 20 will not be playing, including Keys, Daria Kasatkina, Ons Jabeur, and Victoria Azarenka.
That means some players are seeded far higher than their ranking, beginning with Marta Kostyuk, who is seeded 12th, and Donna Vekic, a previous Wimbledon semi-finalist, seeded 14th.
Diana Shnaider, coming off a victory in Budapest, will be the 15th seed and compete as a neutral athlete, with Leylah Fernandez being the last seed.
Women’s Singles Seeds (as of July 22, 2024)
1) Iga Swiatek, Poland
2) Coco Gauff, United States
3) Elena Rybakina, Kazakhstan
4) Jasmine Paolini, Italy
5) Jessica Pegula, United States
6) Zheng Qinwen, China
7) Maria Sakkari, Greece
8) Danielle Collins, United States
9) Barbora Krejcikova, Czechia
10) Jelena Ostapenko, Latvia
11) Emma Navarro, United States
12) Marta Kostyuk, Ukraine
13) Donna Vekic, Croatia
14) Beatriz Haddad Maia, Brazil
15) Diana Shnaider, Authorised Neutral Athlete
16) Leylah Fernandez, Canada
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