CINCINNATI, USA—With all the medal tables finalized and the Closing Ceremony and handoff complete, the 2024 Summer Olympic Games are officially in the books
For many tennis players, the “experience of a lifetime” came with unforgettable memories—from earning a historic medal for their country and sharing a boat on the Seine with Lebron James, to racking up the world’s greatest pin collection—marked with the proverbial thrill of victory and agony of defeat.
The Olympic spirit continues in Paris with the Paralympic Games taking place in under a month, and in Los Angeles with the 2028 Summer Games right around the corner. But on the ATP and WTA Tours, it’s officially back to the weekly grind at the second 1000-level event of the North American hard-court swing
Read More: Paolini, Errani, Auger-Aliassime, Ram, Kostyuk and more: Olympic heroes, sung and unsung
The Cincinnati Open is the first tournament back for many of the tennis’ newly minted medalists and Olympians—like Poland’s Iga Swiatek, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and China’s Zheng Qinwen—as players hit the mental reset button and hone their focus ahead of the US Open
ut before putting Paris in the rearview mirror, players had a lot to say about their experiences at the 2024 Summer Olympics:
“I did the Olympics in Tokyo also, but it was a very different Olympics,” said Tommy Paul in Cincinnati. “We didn’t stay in the Village in Tokyo, and it was also a very short trip for me… This time it was much better.”
Due to the distance between Roland Garros and the rest of the Olympic venues, the American mostly found himself hanging out and bonding with fellow athletes in the Team USA building. “I was watching all the other sports with all the other athletes. And the training room was also obviously all the other athletes,” he recalled. “So just building relationships with new people, watching other sports… It was a lot of fun.”
After falling in the quarterfinals to Carlos Alcaraz in singles, Paul capped off the week with a bronze medal in men’s doubles with Taylor Fritz. Meanwhile, his teammates stayed busy acquiring their own kind of silverware in Paris.
“We kind of went everywhere as a big group, and Coco (Gauff) was leading the front on the trading of pins,” Paul added. “She traded the most pins I’ve ever seen.