Adjust width of spine as necessary MEDIA GUIDE MEDIA 2012 Olympic Tennis Event Tennis 2012 Olympic International Tennis Federation Bank Lane, Roehampton www.itftennis.com London SW15 5XZ www.itftennis.com/olympics MEDIA GUIDE 2012 Olympic Tennis Event Olympic_covers_aw_160611.indd 1 16/06/2011 15:16 2012 olympic tennis event meDiA GUiDe THE GAMES OF THE XXX OLYMPIAD LONDON, GREAT BRITAIN International Tennis Federation Bank Lane, Roehampton London SW15 5XZ Telephone: +44 (0)20 8878 6464 www.itftennis.com/olympics | www.itftennis.com/olimpiadas Editor: Emily Bevan Design: Anthony Collins Creative Printing: Remous Photographs by © International Olympic Committee, Tommy Hindley, Paul Zimmer Reproduction of this work in whole or in part without the prior permission of The International Tennis Federation is prohibited Copyright © 2012 International Tennis Federation All Rights Reserved 2012 Olympic Media Guide 1 Elena Dementieva (RUS) 2 2012 Olympic Media Guide csontent 4 Message from the President 31 Historical Player Lists by Country 5 Tennis in the Olympics 32 Men 7 2012 Match Schedule 60 Women 8 2012 Event Information 9 2012 Administration 79 Results 80 Men’s Singles 11 General Information 90 Men’s Doubles 12 Host Nations 98 Women’s Singles 13 Medal Winners 104 Women’s Doubles 17 Nation Medal Table 108 Mixed Doubles 18 Entries and Nation Representation 19 Tripartite Commission Invitation places 111 Summary of Rules & Regulations 112 Rules and Regulations Summary 21 Statistics 22 Most Games in a Match 117 Olympic Abbreviations 22 Fewest Games in a Match 118 Country Codes 23 Most Games in a Set 23 Most Games in a Final 24 Unfinished Matches 25 Whitewash Matches 25 Players Winning both Singles and Doubles Events at the same Olympic Games 26 Leading Medal Winners 26 Players competing at 4 or more Olympics 26 Most Olympics Contested 26 Miscellaneous 28 Youngest and Oldest Champions 29 Youngest and Oldest Medallists 2012 Olympic Media Guide 3 mGessA e from the presiDent It gives me great pleasure to introduce the Media Guide for the 2012 Olympic Tennis Event. As one of the original sports at the first modern Games in Athens in 1896, tennis has a long Olympic history and this year marks the 24th anniversary of its return to the Olympic Games as a full medal sport. Having withdrawn from the Olympics after the Paris Games in 1924, tennis was absent until Seoul in 1988, when it was readmitted thanks to the combined efforts of former ITF President Philippe Chatrier, General Secretary David Gray and former ITF Vice President Pablo Llorens in addition to the great support of the then IOC President Juan-Antonio Samaranch. Tennis has always been one of the most universal of sports and the ITF has over 200 member nations who all benefit from our association with the Olympics. Our national associations receive support from their governments and National Olympic Committees that would not be available to them without our affiliation with the Olympic Games. In addition, tennis has benefited from the grass roots support provided worldwide through Olympic Solidarity. I am sure that the All England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon will witness tennis of the highest quality as the world’s best players compete for one of the most-coveted prizes in sport – an Olympic gold medal. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the IOC, LOCOG and the incredible number of people who have worked so hard to make these Games a success. I wish everyone involved in this event – the players, officials, media, volunteers and spectators – an enjoyable and rewarding tournament. Francesco Ricci Bitti President, International Tennis Federation 4 2012 Olympic Media Guide tennis in the olympics By chris Bowers 1896 Athens Olympics Charlotte Cooper (GBR) Suzanne Lenglen (FRA) By choosing the All England Club for the 2012 Olympic dominant Olympic champion in 1920 when she claimed tennis event, the London Olympics have taken tennis back gold for the loss of just four games all tournament. to where it was played 104 years ago when the Games were first in the British capital. Or perhaps not exactly – in Given tennis’s prominence in the early years of the modern 1908, the All England Club was at Worple Road, about half Olympiad, it seems strange that the sport was excluded for an hour’s walk from the current Wimbledon site. 64 years. And the reasons still aren’t entirely clear. Then there were two tennis events. The All England Club The 1924 Paris Games saw a superb tennis event, hosted the outdoor event, while London’s other historic but one riddled with underlying tension between the tennis venue, the Queen’s Club, staged an indoor event. tennis and Olympic families. Instead of entrusting The British were dominant in both, and the outdoor event the tennis event to the national tennis association (as saw Reginald Doherty claim a third Olympic gold medal was increasingly the custom in Olympic sports), the when winning the men’s doubles title. French Olympic committee ran the tennis on what was described as a piece of waste ground near the main Tennis is responsible for several milestones in Olympic Stade Colombes Olympic stadium. The facilities were very history. An Irishman John Boland, competing for a basic, much less than players were by then used to, and combined Great Britain and Ireland team in the inaugural morale plummeted. Immediately after the Games, the modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, was the first Olympic International Lawn Tennis Federation presented a list of tennis champion, taking gold in both singles and doubles four demands to the IOC, including the IOC withdrawing events. Women weren’t allowed to compete in those its request that Wimbledon be not staged during Olympic Games (as was the custom in the ancient Olympics), years. When the IOC rejected all four demands, the ILTF but they were admitted four years later in Paris, when had no choice but to pull out, although the fact that it Charlotte Cooper became the first woman to win an took until 1927 for the decision to be made suggests there Olympic gold medal in any sport, when she won the was some deep-rooted reluctance. women’s singles. And Suzanne Lenglen became the most 2012 Olympic Media Guide 5 tennis in the olympics Yevgeny Kafelnikov (RUS) Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge (AUS) A split would have come eventually, because tennis went ‘open’ nearly two decades before the Olympics. But the spirit evoked by the Olympic flame was never wholly extinguished. Tennis appeared as a demonstration sport in Mexico in 1968, and then a determined campaign led by David Gray, then General Secretary of the ITF, with enthusiastic support from the ITF president, Philippe Chatrier, saw tennis return as a 21-and-under demonstration event at in 1984. The success of that event made it a formality for tennis to return to the Olympics as a full medal sport at the Seoul Games in 1988. It took a while for a generation of players who had grown up without tennis as an Olympic sport to fully warm to it, but by the Atlanta Games of 1996, the ground had clearly Nicolas Massu and Fernando Gonzalez (CHI) shifted. The two singles gold medallists in Atlanta, Andre Next stop was Beijing, in 2008, and it was a case of Agassi and Lindsay Davenport, both had parents who had Russian domination in the women’s singles as Elena been Olympians, as had Leander Paes, who won the men’s Dementieva, Dinara Safina and Vera Zvonareva sealed an singles bronze medal. The medals clearly meant massive impressive clean sweep of gold, silver and bronze. In the amounts to them. By the time Todd Woodbridge and men’s singles, Rafael Nadal added an Olympic gold to his Mark Woodforde won their doubles gold in Atlanta, they ever expanding trophy cabinet. had won six Grand Slam men’s doubles titles, including four Wimbledons, but it was the Olympic gold that took The women’s doubles gold medal went, for the second their recognition back home in Australia to a new level. time in their career, to Venus and Serena Williams. The And Yevgeny Kafelnikov was Roland Garros champion in Swiss pairing of Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 1996, Australian Open champion in 1999 and topped the won the gold medal after a four-set win over Sweden’s world rankings for six weeks in 1999, yet nothing ignited Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson, but it was the satisfaction back home in Russia more than his gold at Federer’s tears on the podium that captured the public’s the 2000 Sydney Games. imagination. Here was the most successful player in the history of the men’s game crying through the sheer joy of But the Athens tennis event will long be remembered winning for his country on the world’s biggest stage. for one country, Chile, and one man in particular, Nicolas Massu. The man from Vina del Mar overcame Mardy Fish Tennis is well and truly back in the Olympic fold, and ready in the final to claim the men’s singles gold medal less than to make more history on the grass of Wimbledon. 24 hours after he and Fernando Gonzalez had won Chile its first-ever Olympic gold in the men’s doubles. 6 2012 Olympic Media Guide 2012 Match Schedule Saturday 28 July Thursday 2 August 11.30 Men’s singles First round 11.30 Men’s singles Quarterfinals Men’s doubles First round Men’s doubles Semifinals Women’s singles First round Women’s singles Quarterfinals Women’s doubles First round Women’s doubles Semifinals Sunday 29 July Mixed doubles Quarterfinals 11.30 Men’s singles First round Friday 3 August Men’s doubles First round 12.00 Men’s singles Semifinals Women’s singles First round Women’s