Olympic tennis - the gold of the unknowns
Bet tennisRoger Federer has made no secret of the fact that he wants to win Olympic gold. But a quick glance through the record books is revealing. The 2004 champion was in fact Chile’s unheralded Nicolas Massu, above. In 200 it was Yevgeny Kafelnikov. In 1996 Andre Agassi. In 1992 Marc Rosset. And in 1988 when tennis was re-admuitted to Olympic family it was Miroslav Mecir. In short only one Olympic champion has been the pre-eminent player of his day in Agassi. Historically players have used the event as a warm up for the big money at Flushing Meadows US Open a few weeks later.
This year it is interesting that of the big names only Andy Roddick has chosen to opt out and focus, or so he says, on the US Open and this week in Los Angeles where he is through to quarter finals on Saturday alongside another potential winner in the eccentric Marat Safin. Otherwise everyone who is fit is in Beijing. Britain’s own Andy Murray that diplomatically said that the Olympics are really training for New York, albeit this was after he had seen the draw which pitches him potentially against Raphael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Federer.
In a betting sense this makes the outcome more random. It may well be that those who are there for the love of their country could emerge victorious, which points clearly to the Serbians Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Djokovic. But then there is always that feeling that the either of the Williams sisters could help themselves to the title, although the heat will be against them perhaps, and that Federer means what he says. It could be his last swansong.
He says he loves the Olympics because he met his girlfriend Mirka Vavrinec there. It is also probably why he is staying in a hotel and not the Olympic Village. She told him to.
