Argentina’s Facundo Diaz Acosta clinched the men’s singles gold medal at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games – but may yet miss out on the chance to compete for his country at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The Argentine overcame home favourite Tomas Barrios Vera 6-3 7-6 in the gold medal match, but it is the Chilean No. 1, at this point, who is more assured of representing his country at next summer’s Olympic Tennis Event.

Both the winner and runner-up of a regional Games earn a continental qualification spot into the tennis event at Paris 2024, but only if the quota for the athlete’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) has not already been filled via direct acceptance.

Under Olympic Tennis Event eligibility rules, each singles event will consist of 64 athletes – 56 of which will be direct acceptances – with a maximum of four athletes per NOC.

Argentina currently has five players in the ATP’s top 80, with world No. 107 Diaz Acosta the sixth-highest ranked Argentine behind No. 21 Francisco Cerundolo, No. 29 Sebastian Baez, No. 31 Tomas Martin Etcheverry, No. 70 Pedro Cachin, No. 78 Federico Coria and No. 103 Diego Schwartzman.

That means Diaz Acosta faces an anxious wait to see if he qualifies by virtue of his efforts at the Pan American Games – but he would do so if only three Argentine players are inside the ranking cut-off on 10 June 2024.

Runner-up Barrios Vera, meanwhile, is guaranteed to qualify for Paris 2024 as the current top-ranked Chilean, so long as the world No. 104 maintains his place within the world’s Top 400.

The 25-year-old, who has played 10 Davis Cup ties for his country in since 2017, is set to make his second appearance at an Olympic Games having represented Chile at Tokyo 2020.

Find out more about who qualifies for the Olympic Tennis Event

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Diaz Acosta also took bronze in the mixed doubles alongside Martina Capurro Taborda in what was a strong showing for Argentina, who collected one gold, one silver and three bronze medals at the Games.

Final tennis medal table at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games

Men's singles:

• Gold: Facundo Díaz Acosta (Argentina)
• Silver: Tomas Barrios Vera (Chile)
• Bronze: Thiago Monteiro (Brazil)

Women's singles:

• Gold: Laura Pigossi (Brazil)
• Silver: Lourdes Carlé (Argentina)
• Bronze: Julia Riera (Argentina)

Men's doubles:

• Gold: Gustavo Heide and Marcelo Demoliner (Brazil)
• Silver: Alejandro Tabilo and Tomás Barrios Vera (Chile)
• Bronze: Nick Hardt and Roberto Cid (Dominican Republic)

Women's doubles: 

• Gold: Luisa Stefani and Laura Pigossi (Brazil)
• Silver: María Fernanda Herazo and Paulina Pérez (Colombia)
• Bronze: Lourdes Carlé and Julia Riera (Argentina)

Mixed doubles:

• Gold: Yuliana Lizarazo and Nicolás Barrientos (Colombia)
• Silver: Luisa Stefani and Marcelo Demoliner (Brazil)
• Bronze: Martina Capurro and Facundo Díaz Acosta (Argentina)