"Ridiculous" - Andy Roddick lambasts 'dumb' Paris Olympics rules after late withdrawal in singles forces doubles players into tennis draw

Andy Roddick called out the tennis rules at the Paris Olympics 2024 regarding replacing the singles players with doubles players in case of a withdrawal. This has led to many predominantly doubles players being pitted against singles players, resulting in lopsided scorelines.

Alex de Mianur recently joined a long list of tennis stars who withdrew from the Paris Olympics 2024. World No. 1 Jannik Sinner, Holger Rune, Elena Rybakina, Yulia Putintseva, Cameron Norrie, and Marketa Vondrousova are some of the biggest stars who pulled out of the prestigious event.

The procedure for changing players following the release of the draw is outlined in ITF regulations. Here's what the rule says:

"Any vacancy created by the withdrawal of a seed after the release of the Order of Play for the first day of play shall be filled by another player/team who is eligible and on-site. For example, if a player withdraws from the Singles event, they may be replaced by the highest ranked player, according to the Singles Rankings, participating in the Doubles event but not participating in the Singles event."

This led to Novak Djokovic being pitted against Matt Ebden after Rune's withdrawal. Ebden got overpowered by the Serb 6-0, 6-1. Meanwhile, Norrie's withdrawal forced Petros Tsitsipas, who has played only six singles ATP matches throughout his career, into the singles main draw.

Andy Roddick was not impressed with this rule and took to X (formerly Twitter) to share his views.

"The Olympics singles alternate situation is ridiculous. Players that don’t even/cant play singles at highest level getting the call is dumb," Roddick wrote.

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Andy Roddick provides a solution for dealing with withdrawals: "Allow qualified onsite alternates for singles"

Andy Roddick at a Charity event (Source: Getty)

Andy Roddick provided a solution to avoid lopsided scorelines due to untimely withdrawals. Answering a question from a fan, he said that some alternate singles players should stay onsite.

"Allow qualified onsite alternates for singles," Roddick quipped.

In response to a fan's assertion that a tennis player who excels in doubles can also play singles, Roddick said, "No." Another fan gave an example of an Indian great Leander Paes, who was recently inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame Hall. Paes clinched the bronze medal in the men's singles event at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and is also regarded as one of the best doubles players.

"Lots of singles players fade out and then become doubles players. Way of the world. Doesn’t mean they can go out and play singles if they haven’t done it in years. You just don’t see it. Leander could’ve been a great singles player. No doubt," Roddick responded.

Andy Roddick is a former Grand Slam champion, having won the US Open in 2003.