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202. Jon Wertheim: Olympic tennis preview

Jon Wertheim

Olympic tennis preview

Story Highlights:

After dominant Wimbledon runs, Roger Federer and Serena Williams are favorites

SI.com's writers will preview each event from the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Here, Jon Wertheim looks ahead to tennis.


Each year in tennis, they hold four major events. But, damn the calendar, there is a fifth in 2012. Poll the players in the men's and women's locker rooms and a good number of them will admit that winning an Olympic gold medal would mean every bit as much as winning hardware at Wimbledon or the Australian, French and U.S. Opens.

Part of this is simply the gravitas of the Olympics. Some of this is the overlay of competing for your country in what is otherwise such a fiercely individual, necessarily self-absorbed sport. Some of this is the make-up of the field: Tennis has become such a relentlessly global sport and for many players, they represent their country's best chances at gold. There is, for instance, no Kevin Durant or Michael Phelps in Serbia; thus a country's hopes rest largely on Novak Djokovic's wiry shoulders.

This year, though, the prestige of the Olympic tennis event gets an extra bump from the venue. They'll hold the competition on the lawns of the All England Club, the same hallowed -- hollowed if you're Brad Gilbert -- ground where they hold Wimbledon.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/2012/writers/jon_wertheim/07/20/london-olympic-tennis-preview/index.html#ixzz21OzvdTsq