The best Bulgarian tennis player Viktoriya Tomova secured a quota for participation in the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The official list of players to participate at the Summer Olympics will be announced on Monday, but the Bulgarian tennis player will be in the main scheme of the competition, which will be played on clay from July 27 to August 4.
The reason for her rise in the rankings was her excellent performance in recent weeks. She reached the semifinals in Rabat, Morocco, and then recorded the first Roland Garros main draw win of her career.
According to the regulations of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), 56 players have the right to participate in the Olympics ranking list. In this case, the number will be increased to 57 because France will not use its home quota as it has two players in the top 50. In Monday’s rankings, Viktoriya Tomova is expected to be around No 69 in the world, which is close to her career high (64th place). No more than four athletes per country are allowed to play in the Olympic Games. There are currently ten American women, ten Russian women, eight Czech women, five Chinese women and five Ukrainian women ahead of Viktoriya Tomova, which automatically frees up 18 places.
By the end of the week, Viktoriya Tomova can only be overtaken by Mayar Sherif (when qualifying for the quarterfinals of the tournament in Makarska, Croatia) and one between Anna Karolina Schmiedlova and Petra Martic (when winning the tournament in Makarska). However, Mayar Sherif will not take up a ranking quota as she will qualify as an African Games bronze medalist.
Also according to the regulation, the quota for Paris 2024 can be achieved with the so-called “special ranking” for female tennis players who have been absent for a long time due to injury or pregnancy. It is currently used by Angelique Kerber (Germany, 31), Ajla Tomljanovic (Australia, 33), Paula Badosa (Spain, 34), Naomi Osaka (Japan, 46), Zhang Shuai (China, 48), Irina-Camelia Begu (Romania, 49), Lauren Davis (USA, 59) and Bianca Andreescu (Canada, 64). Zhang Shuai and Lauren Davis are not a threat because of the limit of players on the one hand, and two of Angelique Kerber, Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu are expected to receive a “wild card” as holders of Grand Slam titles. For this reason, in the worst case scenario, Viktoriya Tomova will be 56th on the list, which will qualify her for Paris.
In this way, Viktoriya Tomova will become the seventh Bulgarian tennis player to participate in the Olympic tennis tournament, after Manuela Maleeva (1988, bronze medal), Katerina Maleeva (1988, 1992), Magdalena Maleeva (1992, 1996, 2004), Elena Pampoulova (1992), Tsvetana Pironkova (2008, 2012, 2016) and Grigor Dimitrov (2012, 2016).
