The

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 tennis player. He is an eight-time Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major champion and an Tennis at the 1996 Summer Olympic ...

defeated

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

's Sergi Bruguera in the final, 6–2, 6–3, 6–1 to win the gold medal in Men's Singles

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

. The victory gave Agassi the fourth of five components of the

career Golden Slam The Grand Slam in tennis is the achievement of winning all four major championships in one discipline in a calendar year, also referred to as the "Calendar-year Grand Slam" or "Calendar Slam". In doubles, a team may accomplish the Grand Slam pl ...

; his later win at the

French Open The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ve ...

made him the first man to complete the career Golden Slam in singles. It was the United States' first gold medal in the event since

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hold ...

and its third overall, equaling Great Britain's record. It was Spain's second consecutive silver medal. In the bronze medal match,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

Leander Paes Leander Adrian Paes ( ; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian former professional tennis player. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players ever. He holds the record for the most doubles wins in the Davis Cup. Paes won eight men's ...

defeated

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Fernando Meligeni Fernando Ariel Meligeni (born April 12, 1971), nicknamed ''Fininho'' (diminutive form in Portuguese for ''thin''), is a Brazilian former professional tennis player. He won 3 singles titles and reached the semi-finals of both the 1999 French Ope ...

, 3–6, 6–2, 6–4. It was India's first Olympic tennis medal. The tournament was held at the Stone Mountain Tennis Center in

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, of the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. There were 64 competitors from 36 nations. Nations had been limited to three players each since the return of tennis to the Olympic program in 1988.

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Marc Rosset Marc Rosset (born 7 November 1970) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He is best known for winning the men's singles gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics. He also won a major doubles title, at the French Open in 1992 partnering com ...

was the reigning gold medalist from

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

, but he retired from his third round match against

Renzo Furlan Renzo Furlan (born 17 May 1970) is a former tennis player from Italy. Having turned professional in 1988, Furlan represented his native country at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was defeated in the quarter finals by Indi ...

Background

This was the 10th (medal) appearance of the men's singles tennis event. The event has been held at every Summer Olympics where tennis has been on the program: from 1896 to 1924 and then from 1988 to the current program. Demonstration events were held in 1968 and 1984. The number one seed was

of the United States. Two of the eight quarterfinalists from the 1992 tournament returned: gold medalist

of Switzerland and bronze medalist

Goran Ivanišević Goran Ivanišević (; born 13 September 1971) is a Croatian former professional tennis player and current coach. He is the only player to win a Wimbledon singles title as a wildcard. He achieved this in 2001 while ranked world No. 125, after ...

of Croatia. Armenia, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Slovakia, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela each made their debut in the event. France made its ninth appearance, most among all nations, having missed only the 1904 event.

Competition format

The competition was a single-elimination tournament, but with some significant changes from 1988 and 1992. A bronze medal match was held, unlike the previous two Games. Matches before the final were reduced to best-of-three sets instead of best-of-five sets. The 12-point tie-breaker continued be used in any set, except the third (or the fifth in the final), that reached 6–6.

Schedule

All times are

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( UTC-4)

Seeds

Draw

Finals

Top half

Section 1

Section 2

Bottom half

Section 3

Section 4

References

ITF Olympic Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tennis at the 1996 Summer Olympics - Men's singles Men's singles Men's events at the 1996 Summer Olympics