Preview
Despite debate being re-ignited about tennis's place at the Olympics, and the attestations of some players (such as Andy Roddick, who chose to play an American tournament in order to prepare for the U.S. Open), that the Grand Slams remained the pre-eminent tennis tournaments, the 2008 Games saw the strongest field of competition since tennis's re-introduction to the Olympics in 1988. The singles competitions featured 17 of the top 20 men, and 18 of the top 20 women, with all of the top five men in attendance. This was a huge improvement on only 12 years ago in Atlanta, when only 3 men from the world's top 10 entered. Players had been further incentivized to compete at the Olympics after the ATP and WTA began awarding ranking points as of the 2000 Games.
Apathy towards the Games was still present, as Roddick and 2004 Men's Singles silver-medalist Mardy Fish opted not to play in Beijing to better prepare themselves for the U.S. Open, and Tom Tebbutt, commenting for the Globe and Mail (Canada), said "tennis appears headed for a downer at the Olympic Games". However, many players expressed their enthusiasm for the Games, including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Jonas Björkman, Nicolás Massú, Andy Murray, Jelena Janković, Elena Dementieva, Alicia Molik, and Venus and Serena Williams. Novak Djoković and Svetlana Kuznetsova said that they felt the Olympics were of equal or even greater prestige than the Grand Slams, and Federer maintained that the Olympics were one of his priorities for the season.
Read more about this topic: Tennis At The 2008 Summer Olympics
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