Here are some amazing facts that tennis fans everywhere should know about the Olympic tennis.
* Tennis was one of the original 9 sporting events that were contested at the Olympic Games held in Athens, Greece in 1896. The other eight sporting events were Athletics, Fencing, Cycling, Gymnastics, Swimming, Shooting, Weightlifting and Wrestling.
* All of the matches will be on a best-of-three format with the exception of the men’s singles final which will be a best-of-five. The third set tiebreaker in the newly added mixed doubles competition will be contested via a super tiebreaker option wherein the team to reach 10 points with at least two points lead over the opponent gets the win.
* Tennis was not part of the Olympic Games since 1924 Paris Games. It was reinstated in 1988 during the Seoul Olympic Games. The reason behind the absence was due to a dispute between the International Tennis Federation and International Olympic Committee.
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* For the first time, the mixed doubles event has been added in the Olympic Games, making tennis a five-medal event (Men’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Singles, Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles).
* Former top-ranked Steffi Graf of Germany achieved the “Golden Slam” when she won the gold medal for her home country during the Seoul 1988 Games. The 22-time Grand Slam winner has won the four Grand Slam events that year as well. Four years prior, Graf also won the gold medal for tennis when it was still a demonstration sport before its reinstatement as an official Olympic sporting event at the South Korean capital.
* The Williams sisters (Venus and Serena) won their first of two doubles gold medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics where the due thrashed Belgium 6-1, 6-1. The sisters won their second doubles gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics after routing Spain 6-2, 6-0.
* The top 56 players in the WTA and ATP tour (based on the rankings as of June 11, 2012) will qualify for the singles competition. However, there’s a catch, only four players in each country can qualify. Even if a player qualifies by ranking but there are four other compatriots that have higher rankings, then the player won’t qualify.
* The country with the most number of Olympic medals won in tennis is United States with 17 (including 10 gold medals) since 1988. Coming in second is Spain is 11 while Germany and Russia came in third with 7 each.
* Despite being a powerhouse country for the sport, the US team failed to win a single medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
* Some of the past gold medalists in singles have never won a Grand Slam title – to name a few, Elena Dementieva (2008 Beijing); Miroslav Mecir (1988); Nicolas Massu (2004) and Marc Rosset (1992)
