One of those who desired to gain a spot in the Olympics was Pedro Martinez, who worked tirelessly to get his ranking inside the Top 50. Although he has met this requirement, another criterion is based on the maximum number of participants per country.
This is restricted to the four best-ranked players in the Top 56 for one nation. Martinez is now the third-best-ranked Spaniard in the ATP rankings behind World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
However, because two Spaniards will use their protected ranking (PR) to compete at the event, the 27-year-old will miss out. These are 2008 Beijing gold medalist Rafael Nadal, who might be playing his last tournament, and 2020 Tokyo bronze medalist Pablo Carreno Busta.
The PR permits players who were injured for a minimum duration of six months to use their previous ranking at the time of the injury break and can enter into nine ATP events upon their return.
But Martinez has given a harsh assessment of this protected ranking system in statements shared with Roland Garros. He branded it “unfair” and “injustice” to miss the competition not because of injury.
“In this case, the protected ranking is an injustice because neither of us has missed the Olympic Games due to being injured, regardless of whether it is Rafa, who we all want to see in the Olympic Games, including me as a fan.”
“I don’t view that as totally fair. It’s as if I get hurt now and in four years I use the protected ranking in the Los Angeles Games. I think that this year I deserve to go to the Olympic Games – and not going because of a circumstance like this is a bit unjust. But you can’t control it and that’s all.”
