Most Olympic tennis singles appearances (male)

Lu Yen-hsun (Taiwan, aka “Rendy Lu”) made his fifth and final appearance at an Olympic Games when he competed in the singles competition at Tokyo 2021. The 37-year-old bowed out in the first round against gold medallist Alexander Zverev, 6-1, 6-3, and immediately announced his retirement. Nine players have made at least five Olympic appearances in singles and/or doubles, but only Venus Williams (2000-16) and Samantha Stosur (2004-21) have matched Lu’s total of five singles entries (2004-2021).

Lu Yen-hsun made it no further than the first round in 2004 and 2012-21, but at Beijing 2008 he defeated sixth seed Andy Murray (who would go on to win singles gold at London 2012) 7-6, 6-4 in Round 1 and Argentina’s Agustín Calleri 6-4, 6-4 in Round 2 before falling to Austria’s Jürgen Melzer in Round 3 (6-2, 6-4). One more win would have seen him through to a quarter-final meeting with gold medallist and No.2 seed Rafael Nadal.

Leander Paes (India) has made more Olympic appearances than any other tennis player (seven, in 1992-2016), followed by Canada’s Daniel Nestor (six, in 1996-2016). Paes has played singles three times, doubles seven times and mixed doubles once. Nestor has played singles twice and doubles six times.

The right-hander turned pro in 2001 and had a career-high singles ranking of 33 in 2010 – the year he became a Wimbledon quarter-finalist. Lu won more ATP Challenger Tour titles (29) than any other player, featuring 369 match wins and at least one title for 14 years in a row (2004-17). The Challenger Tour is the tier below the ATP Tour, the highest level of competition for men.

Lu was a flag-bearer at the opening ceremony of the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games.