Women's event wide open

Seldom has a women’s Olympic singles event been as open as this year’s. But then seldom has women’s tennis been quite so open in general.

The sport which has seen dominance over the past 20 years by Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, the Williams sisters and recently Justine Henin suddenly finds itself without a natural front-runner. Henin’s shock retirement in May not only deprives the Olympic women’s singles of its ‘defending champion’, but also leaves the women’s game without anyone obvious to gun for.
 
The absence of Henin is a shame on two counts. Firstly her more varied game is being sorely missed from women’s tennis, and accounts in part for the somewhat disappointing women’s tournament at Wimbledon this year. Secondly, she came to Athens four years ago somewhat underwhelmed by the Olympic idea but left an enthusiastic convert to the spirit of the five rings. ‘It was one of the most beautiful moments in my life,’ she said several times after her gold in 2004, and it would have been nice to see how she would have approached the Beijing games with advance enthusiasm.

Williams look favourites

Despite being only fifth and seventh in the rankings, Serena and Venus Williams will be many people’s favourites. The benefits of their experience on grass made them the standout players at Wimbledon while the form of those around them crumbled, and the Williamses’ stellar performances in Sydney eight years ago – when Venus won singles gold and the pair won gold in the doubles – have clearly left them wanting more. If anything, Serena may be a hotter prospect for singles this time, given that she was only nominated for doubles in 2000 and missed 2004 through injury.

The top two players, the Serbs Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic, cannot be written off lightly. Ivanovic showed she was ready for Grand Slam glory when she won the French Open, but wilted at Wimbledon under the weight of being world No 1, and she will carry a fair bit of pressure in representing her fiercely proud nation. Jankovic’s biggest issues appear to be physical, after admitting at Wimbledon that she couldn’t remember when she last didn’t have to call for the trainer during a match.

The Olympics have always been top of every Russian’s sporting priority list, and it would be a surprise if at least one of the medals wasn’t taken by someone from Russia. Before suffering a shoulder injury that has put her participation in Beijing in doubt, Maria Sharapova was so keen to play in the Olympics ,that she finally ended her ‘will-she won’t she?’ guessing game over whether she would play Fed Cup by BNP Paribas, but now faces a race against time to be fit.

Of the other Russians, Svetlana Kuznetsova seems the best bet, but her game has deserted her recently in the latter stages of the major tournaments, and she may find that Dinara Safina, her compatriot who beat her at the French Open, goes further in Beijing too. There’s also Elena Dementieva, a silver medallist eight years ago, who has been in reasonable form recently.

It’s harder to see potential medallists further down the women’s rankings, except for a trio of eastern Europeans who have made massive strides over the past year: Agnieszka Radwanska, Agnes Szavay and Victoria Azarenka. Radwanska has already made it into the top 10 following an impressive grasscourt season, but all three are dangerous in an environment where they may fit into the team and multisports ethos better than some of their more experienced rivals.

Alongside Venus Williams there is one other former gold medallist in the starting line-up, Lindsay Davenport, whose experience and Olympic pedigree (both her parents were Olympians) give her an outside chance of another medal if her body stays together. And if China is to take a singles medal, Jie Zheng may be the best hope after her shock run to the semifinals at Wimbledon.

China’s best hope in doubles

The women’s doubles provided China’s highlight in Athens, when Ting Li and Tiantian Sun won the gold, and the same event looks most promising this time for the home nation. Sun is back partnering Shuai Peng, but the better hope is Zi Yan and Jie Zheng, who have regularly been among the top five pairs over the past three years.

Yet lurking in the field is the occasional but highly dangerous pairing of Venus and Serena Williams, who teamed up for Wimbledon and won it on the same day they played the singles final. They and Yan-Zheng join about six other pairs who can realistically hope for a medal in a very open field. Among the others are the Bondarenko sisters from Ukraine who are Australian Open champions, Medina Garrigues and Ruano Pascual from Spain who are French Open champions, the Chinese Taipei pair of Yung-Jan Chan and Chia-Jung Chuang, and two impressive-looking Australian pairs, Sam Stosur and Rennae Stubbs, and Casey Dellacqua and Alicia Molik.

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