The summer hardcourt season gets a little hotter this year with the addition of the Beijing Olympics.
So who will it be in the torrid, politically charged atmosphere of Beijing? An out-of-nowhere champion like Marc Rosset or Nicolas Massu? Or a gold medalist for the ages like Andre Agassi or Steffi Graf? The men’s event at the games has had it both ways in the 20 years since tennis returned to being a full-blown Olympic sport in 1988, while the women have played more to form. Of the five men to win gold in singles, three never won a Grand Slam singles title: Miloslav Mecir in Seoul in 1988; Rosset in Barcelona in 1992; and Massu the last time around in Athens. All five women who have won singles gold have been multiple Grand Slam winners: Graf, Jennifer Capriati, Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams, and Justine Henin.
As in Athens, the Beijing event, which takes place Aug. 10–17, will be played on DecoTurf II, the same acrylic-coated, hardcourt surface used at the U.S. Open. Each country is allowed, depending on rankings, up to four entries per gender in singles and two teams in doubles. Like last time, the conditions should favor tough, physically resistant candidates who haven’t already been worn down by a long summer of high achievement. But arguing against a surprise men’s champion in Beijing is the fact that the ATP’s big three, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic, all plan to play. None has ever medaled at the quadrennial event, so their motivation should be strong. Federer lost the bronze-medal match to Arnaud di Pasquale of France in Sydney in 2000 and was upset by Tomas Berdych in the second round in Athens. Nadal and Djokovic have yet to play.
If anything, a surprise winner seems more likely on the women’s side. There’s no clear-cut favorite, and the tightly bunched players at the top of the rankings are vulnerable. If healthy, Serena Williams, who had to withdraw at the final hour in 2004 because of injury, will be America’s biggest threat. Though Serena won the doubles gold medal in 2000 with her sister Venus, the Olympic singles remains the only significant title she lacks. She will have to contend with her sister, Dinara Safin and Svetlana Kuznetsova playing for Russia, and Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic playing for Serbia.
Regardless of who takes gold, recovery for the U.S. Open a week later will be a challenge. “I’ve been to Shanghai and back just to commentate and I’ve been tired,” says Patrick McEnroe, the U.S. Davis Cup captain, who coached the U.S. men at the 2004 Olympics. “It’s certainly a difficult task, but you hope the best players perform well. I still think, despite my opposition to the current format of the Olympics, it’s a huge opportunity to promote tennis.”
McEnroe thinks that the Olympics should be, first and foremost, a team event, with the individual medals only part of the mix. But the International Tennis Federation and its president, Francesco Ricci Bitti, now a member of the International Olympic Committee, are content with the state of Olympic tennis and its individual tournament draws. “I know the IOC is happy with tennis,” Ricci Bitti said recently. “It’s not only considered one of the sports in the games. It’s one of the strong sports, part of tier two, behind [track and field] and swimming.”
Top players are sitting out the Olympics less regularly. The rankings points available have helped, but with 400 points for the men’s winner and 353 for the women’s, a player can still accumulate more by winning a Masters Series or Tier I tournament, and more than twice as many by winning a major. “For me, the Olympics are an attraction apart, independent of the fact you get computer points,” Nadal says. “What motivates me is representing my country and to live from the inside something that only happens every four years and something that you may never play again.”
Apart from the sidelined Maria Sharapova, the only star player not planning to compete is Andy Roddick, who wants to focus on winning a second U.S. Open. Mardy Fish, a silver medalist in singles in Athens, is also skipping the Olympics. Fish said he wanted to conserve his energy for the hardcourt season, when he generally accumulates the bulk of his points and earnings.
“The travel is going to be tough with Beijing,” Fish says. “I really enjoy going to L.A. and D.C., and I really enjoy playing in the States. I think it’s the best decision for me.” The Americans who are going are the Bryan brothers in doubles and first-time Olympians James Blake and Sam Querrey—and potentially Robby Ginepri— in singles. Querrey is angling for a memorable roommate at the Olympic Village. “I’m hoping for LeBron James,” he says. Unless Querrey can pull off a Massu-type run, that could be the closest he comes to Olympic gold.
The original version of this article appeared in the August issue of TENNIS magazine.