The Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open. And this year, a fifth Grand Slam: the Beijing Olympics. With the sport's biggest names lining up for a shot at gold, the Olympic tennis tournament provides a welcome shake-up to the usual order of service.
The sense of excitement is refreshing from the highly paid, well-travelled tennis elite, some of whom will carry their nations' flags at the glittering opening ceremony. "An Olympic gold would be something very special," Roger Federer, who has placed Beijing at the top of his list this year. Lindsay Davenport, winner in 1996, said the Atlanta opening bash was a moment of "pure joy."
"We were all crying when Muhammad Ali lit the torch," she said. But euphoria will soon give way to brutal competition at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre, with the mercury expected to top 30 deg C (85 deg F) in muggy and polluted air.
Federer will be the marginal favourite to claim arguably the season's biggest prize after finishing fourth at Sydney 2000 and flopping out in round two in Athens. But his worst season since 2004 is ill-timed for the Swiss, with a shock first round loss in Toronto last month compounding his woes.
Rafael Nadal, who will replace Federer as world number one when the updated rankings are published later this month. underlined his dominance on clay at the French Open and them on grass at Wimbledon. However, the Spaniard is vulnerable on hard courts, winning just one title on the surface last year out of six in total. Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, who this month ended Nadal's 32-match winning streak, heads a list of challengers also featuring Nikolay Davydenko, Andy Murray and emerging French stars Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils.
Only two top-10 players, Andy Roddick and Richard Gasquet, have decided against the extra physical demands of an event which falls between Wimbledon and the US Open. And with competition relatively open, fans will also be encouraged by the Games' reputation for surprises.
Czech Miloslav Mecir triumphed when tennis returned to the Olympic roster in 1988, followed by Switzerland's Marc Rosset in Barcelona before Andre Agassi became the first big-name champion in 1996. "To win a Grand Slam in the sport of tennis is the biggest thing you can accomplish in your sport. But the Olympics is the biggest thing you can do in all sports," gushed the American.
Yevgeny Kafelnikov took the title in 2000 before Chile's Nicolas Massu stunned everyone by winning both singles and doubles gold in Athens. In the women's draw, Serbian superstar Ana Ivanovic will be the centre of attention after claiming the number one spot and the French Open title in Paris, following the shock retirement of Justine Henin, gold medallist in Athens four years ago. Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova will miss the tournament after she withdrew last week because of a shoulder injury.
But even in her absence, the Russian challenge remains strong with four of her compatriots - Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Dementieva, Anna Chakvetadze and Dinara Safina also in the top 10. Serbia's Jelena Jankovic holds the second ranking and Serena Williams, if she recovers from a left knee injury, will look to join a role of honour which includes her sister Venus, the current Wimbledon champion, by claiming the only major title to elude her.
Meanwhile, Chinese fans will look for a repeat of 2004, when Li Ting and Sun Tiantian captured women's doubles gold, contributing to an unprecedented tennis boom on the mainland. Home hopes rest on Li Na and Zheng Jie in the singles and doubles pair Zheng and Yan Zi, the country's first Grand Slam champions and products of its intensive training system. Tennis is now rated as one of China's most popular sports, with an estimated three million regular players and marquee events like the Tennis Masters Cup and China Open.
Organisers have gone to town with Olympic Green, providing 10 competition courts including three lotus-shaped main arenas, the biggest of which seats 10,000. Sixty-four men's and women's players will enter the singles draw with play lasting a week from August 10.
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