The 2026 Commonwealth Games are about to begin in Glasgow, Scotland, but tennis is nowhere to be seen.
In fact, tennis hasn’t been seen at the Commonwealth Games since its debut in Delhi, India, 16 years ago.
Even the allure of the Scotsman, Andy Murray, couldn’t bring tennis back to the Games when Glasgow last hosted the event in 2014.
Who is the best hard-court player in tennis today?
The US Open is right around the corner…
So what happened in Delhi and why has tennis never returned to the Commonwealth Games?
No top players chose to attend the 2010 Commonwealth Games tennis event
The 2010 Commonwealth Games clashed with the 2010 China Open.
That was the first problem…
With 500 ranking points on offer for the men and 1,000 for the women in Beijing, it was always going to be difficult to persuade the best players from the Commonwealth to travel to Delhi.
And perhaps unsurprisingly, only one top-100 player made the trip.
Australia’s world number 63 Anastasia Rodionova headed over to India to compete for a medal, but other eligible big names travelled to Beijing instead.
Eligible top-10 players who picked the China Open over the 2010 Commonwealth Games
- Andy Murray (Scotland) – ATP #4
- Sam Stosur (Australia) – WTA #8
So, with a weaker field taking part, global interest in the Commonwealth Games tennis event wasn’t that high.
There was, however, plenty to celebrate for Indian tennis fans, as they won four medals at the tournament.
2010 Commonwealth Games tennis medallists
| Discipline | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Men’s singles | Somdev Devvarman (India) | Greg Jones (Australia) | Matthew Ebden (Australia) |
| Women’s singles | Anastasia Rodionova (Australia) | Sania Mirza (India) | Sally Peers (Australia) |
| Men’s doubles | Paul Hanley/Peter Luczak (Australia) | Ross Hutchins/Ken Skupski (England) | Mahesh Bhupathi/Leander Paes (India) |
| Women’s doubles | Anastasia Rodionova/Sally Peers (Australia) | Olivia Rogowska/Jessica Moore (Australia) | Sania Mirza/Rushmi Chakravarthi (India) |
| Mixed doubles | Colin Fleming/Jocelyn Rae (Scotland) | Paul Hanley/Anastasia Rodionova (Australia) | Ken Skupski/Sarah Borwell (England) |
2010 Commonwealth Games tennis medal table
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Australia | 3 | 3 | 2 | 8 |
| 2 | India | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 3 | Scotland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | England | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
When the 2010 Commonwealth Games finished, all eyes turned to 2014 and Glasgow.
However, the decision had already been made not to include tennis in the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Glasgow had to pick 17 sports for 2014, choosing from two lists: Core and Options.
Tennis was in the ‘Options’ list, but didn’t get selected.
You might wonder why tennis didn’t get the nod, given Murray’s success; however, it’s important to note that they had to choose the sports in 2007, when they were selected as the host nation.
Murray, while an impressive youngster, wasn’t exactly a household name in 2007, and certainly not someone who would move the needle, so to speak, when choosing which sports to play in Glasgow.
Therefore, one of Scotland’s greatest ever athletes wasn’t able to play in his home Commonwealth Games.
Murray wasn’t happy with tennis’ exclusion from the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
“I’m not sure exactly why they got rid of tennis, as they had a good turnout at the last games,” he said as reported by the ‘Daily Record‘.
”It would have been nice, as I probably would have played.
“With anything like that, if you take it out for a few years and then bring it back in, you don’t really build that prestige of making players really want to take part, so it’s a shame.”
Tennis didn’t return in 2018 (Gold Coast, Australia), 2022 (Birmingham, England), or 2026 (Glasgow, Scotland).
However, there is some hope for 2030, when the Games return to India, which hosted the tennis event 20 years earlier.
The organisers of the Ahmedabad Games still have five to seven sports to add to the programme, and who knows, tennis might make an unlikely return…
Who would win the Commonwealth Games tennis gold medals today?
There will be no tennis at this year’s Commonwealth Games, but if there was, who would take gold?
On the men’s side, you’d have to back Alex de Minaur or Felix Auger-Aliassime, the only two top-10 players from Commonwealth nations.
And for the women, with Victoria Mboko out injured, Canada’s Leylah Fernandez would become the gold medal favourite.
Perhaps the British stars, Emma Raducanu, Arthur Fery, and Jack Draper, would challenge for medals too, provided they were fit to do so.
Only time will tell if any of the above will have an opportunity to win Commonwealth gold before the end of their careers.
