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Serena Williams, Federer Open Olympic Play Sunday
Posted on August 9, 2008
Olympic debutants Chris Guccione and James Blake will meet for the first time in the opening match on Centre Court.
With top-ranked American Andy Roddick not playing in Beijing, No. 8 seed James Blake is carrying US hopes for an Olympic medal in men’s singles. Although he has yet to win a title this year, all ten of Blake’s career singles titles have been won on hard court. He is undefeated on hard court when playing for his country in Davis Cup.
Blake’s opponent, the 2.01m (6’7”) lefthander Guccione, is ranked No. 90 in the world. World No. 1 Roger Federer will begin his Olympic campaign against tough opponent Dmitry Tursunov in the highlight of the evening session on Centre Court. Federer played in the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Games, but has yet to win an Olympic medal. He lost the bronze medal play-off in Sydney to Arnaud Di Pasquale.
Athens 2004 men’s singles bronze medallist Fernando Gonzalez, seeded No. 12, is expected to have an easier match against home hope Sun Peng in the morning session on Court 1. Sun is ranked No. 453 in the world. Gonzalez was Chile’s flagbearer at Friday’s Opening Ceremony.
Fifth seed David Ferrer takes on Janko Tipsarevic, whom he has defeated in their previous two meetings. Tipsarevic hit the headlines at this year’s Australian Open when he pushed Federer to five sets in their third-round meeting.
Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis enters the Beijing Games with a career-high ranking of No. 38 after a breakthrough season. He meets world No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko first up on Court 2. Gulbis appeared in his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at this year’s French Open, while Davydenko has made up for his lack of impact at the 2008 Grand Slam tournaments by winning three other titles this year.
No. 4 seed Serena Williams plays the first women’s match on Centre Court. The eight-time Grand Slam champion faces Olga Govortsova, who is making her Olympic debut. Williams is also playing singles at an Olympic Games for the first time, having missed Athens with a knee injury, but she won the women’s doubles gold in Sydney with her sister Venus. Govortsova is currently ranked No. 47. She reached her first final at Memphis in February and rose to a career-high ranking of No. 35 on 23 June this year.
The first match of the evening session on Centre Court pits No. 3 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova against one of the four Chinese women in the singles draw – Li Na. Kuznetsova has won three of the four previous meetings, including both their hard court match-ups; all except one of their matches to date have gone to three sets. Li is playing just her third tournament after a four-month absence due to a right knee injury.
No. 2 seed Jelena Jankovic tests her right calf injury, which forced her to miss practice on Friday, against Cara Black. Jankovic will become the new No. 1 in singles on Monday and she should progress against Black, the joint No. 1 doubles player in the world, who rarely plays singles. This is just her second main draw appearance of the year but she did play singles in both Sydney and Athens.
Two more Chinese women look to give the host nation a good start to the tennis event on Court 1. In the day session, Peng Shuai plays Carla Suarez-Navarro and will hope to avenge her defeat in their only previous meeting in the Fed Cup semifinal in April, in which Spain defeated China 3-2. Yan Zi has a tougher task against No. 9 seed Vera Zvonareva, one of the four Russians among the top 10 seeds in this event, in the first match of the evening session on this court. (ITF)
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