By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
The Pan Am Games tennis competition ended Sunday in Lima, Peru with two dramatic gold medal matches.
In the men’s final, Brazil’s João Menezes defeated Tomas Barrios of Chile 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, while in the women’s final, Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska defeated American Caroline Dolehide 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(4).
According to new rules by the international Tennis Federation, the singles finalists for this competition, which is like a mini-Olympics for nations in North, Central and South America, will earn invitations to participate as wild card entries into the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan next summer.
However, the American Dolehide will not be walking in the Opening Ceremonies in Tokyo next summer. This is not because of some international conspiracy against Americans, but simply because, in fine print in the ITF Rules, the Pan Am Games singles finalists will only qualify for the Olympic Games should the player’s respective nation not already directly qualify the maximum four singles players via the ATP and WTA Tour rankings on the cut off deadline of June 8, 2020 (the ranking immediately after the French Open.)
There are currently 10 American women ranked in the top 75 of the WTA Rankings, which will be about the cutoff for Olympic qualifications. The highest ranked 56 direct entries will earn Olympic spots, provided that no nation have more than four players in the singles field.
As of the July 28 WTA Rankings, the U.S. Olympic women’s team would be No. 8 Sloane Stephens, No. 9 Serena Williams, No. 17 Madison Keys and No. 23 Amanda Anisimova. Dolehide, currently ranked No. 261, is the No. 31-ranked American woman. For her to qualify for the Games, she would have to be a direct acceptance within the top four American women who earn direct entry (likely improve her ranking to the top 25 or better!), or hope that the United States only qualify three singles players and she would get the fourth position, regardless of her ranking, based on her Pan Am Games performance. A lot would have to happen for the latter to happen.
Podoroska is No. 287 in the WTA Rankings and the No. 2 Argentine player and one of only three players from her country in the WTA singles rankings, so her position for Tokyo is very secure.
Menezes is ranked No. 212 on the ATP computer and No. 2 in Brazil and seems secure that there will not be four other Brazilian players that will all move into the top 75 of the ATP rankings by next June.
Barrios is ranked No. 286 on the ATP computer and is No. 3 Chilean. Christian Garin at No. 35 is the top-ranked Chilean and Nicolas Jarry is at No. 55 and is No. 2. There are only three other players from Chile in the top 500 so Barrios also appears safe for his slot in Tokyo.
The Olympic qualification rules as set forth by the ITF can be found here: https://www.itftennis.com/media/282148/282148.pdf
Dolehide, 20 years old and originally from suburban Chicago, has shown great promise in her young career, achieving a career-high ranking of No. 102 last July and registering wins so far in her career over Naomi Osaka and Dominika Cibulkova and reaching the second round of the 2018 French Open.
Dolehide and Usue Arconada won the gold medal in women’s doubles in Lima defeating Paraguay’s Veronica Cepede-Royg and Montserrat Gonzalez, 6-0, 6-4 in the gold medal match.
