News The world's top tennis players are currently doing battle at the French Open, the second Grand Slam of the season Afterwards, in June and July, the focus will switch to Wimbledon, but the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, in August, are already on the radar “You know, we have the best players in the world participating in arguably the fifth Grand Slam It's of that importance for all of us, even more, because it happens every four years,” said world no 1 Novak Djokovic in an interview with Reuters after beating Lu Yen-hsun in Paris on Tuesday (24 May) Djokovic, who has won 11 Grand Slams, also believes that the Olympic tennis tournament should be worth ranking points so that players can improve their rating on the ATP list while playing at the Games “To be quite frank, I don't see a reason why not,” he said “I would definitely encourage people to rethink getting points out there ” The closest Djokovic has got to the top of the Olympic podium was at the Beijing 2008 Games, where he won bronze, and the Serb has identified gold in Rio as one of his priorities this year World no 3 Roger Federer will also be aiming to win his first Olympic singles gold in Rio, where he said he hopes to do “something extraordinary” The Swiss, considered by many the greatest ever tennis player, has won 17 Grand Slams and took doubles gold with Stanislas Wawrinka at Beijing 2008 Olympic Tennis Centre to usher in new era for sport in Brazil Federer and Wawrinka show off their golds in Beijing (Photo: Getty Images/Clive Brunskill) Federer should arrive in Rio in good shape, having decided to miss the French Open in order to fully recover from a back injury, bringing to an end a run of 65 consecutive Grand Slams that stretches back to 1999  “I am still not 100% and feel I might be taking an unnecessary risk by playing in this event before I am really ready This decision was not easy to make, but I took it to ensure I could play the remainder of the season and help to extend the rest of my career”, the 34-year-old said on his Facebook page Federer lost to Andy Murray in the London 2012 Olympic tennis final, which was staged at Wimbledon, and has been thinking about going one better in Rio since last year, as this Twitter post shows Nadal and Murray going for second gold While Federer and Djokovic are targeting their first Olympic titles, Rafael Nadal, like Murray, will be seeking his second gold in Rio, having topped the podium at Beijing 2008 The Spanish world no 5, who has won 14 Grand Slams, has already been chosen to carry his nation's flag at the Rio 2016 opening ceremony at the Maracanã Stadium, an honour he celebrated in the Twitter post below Murray, the world no 2, has also made plain his determination to defend his title in Rio “I won the gold in London four years ago so to try to defend that is another big goal for me,” he said in January “They (the Australian Open and Olympic Games) would be the two main ones for me ”  The Scot added that “the Olympics is the biggest sporting competition by far I have been to the opening ceremony and you have the best athletes in the world there There is no comparison ” Murray shows off the gold medal he won by beating Federer in London (photo: Getty Images/Jeff J Mitchell) Buy your tickets to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games