By David Marcus
Beijing China Olympic Tennis News

Beijing, China --- August 17…During the past week tennis celebrated the 20th anniversary of its return to the Olympic Games in Beijing, China as a full medal sport, with one of its strongest fields ever. The China Olympics tennis competition welcomed the top ranked players in both men’s and women’s tennis.

Number one seed Roger Federer of Switzerland came to Beijing, China as did his nemesis and heir apparent Rafael Nadal of Spain. Number three seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia was on hand as was last week’s Cincinnati ATP Masters tournament champion number six Andy Murray of Great Britain, number 7 David Nalbandian of Argentina and number eight seed James Blake of the US. Lurking in the background was the mercurial number 15 seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, a tennis player who already had proved himself a superb Olympic competitor having won gold and bronze medals at the Athens Olympics Games in 2004.

Everybody was looking forward to a gold medal tennis final which would be a repeat of the classic 2008 Wimbledon showdown between Nadal and Federer. Instead, what we got was an upset of Roger Federer by James Blake and two superb tennis semifinal matches between Blake and Gonzalez and Nadal and Dokovic.

Notably missing from the mix of top men’s tennis players in Beijing was Andy Roddick. Roddick opted to stay home in the US and get his game in shape for the U.S. Open which starts next weekend in Forest Hills, New York.

On the women’s side we also had the top ranked women’s players, but when number one ranked Ana Ivanovic of Serbia suddenly withdrew, number two seed Jalena Jankovic of Serbia was beat by the hard hitting number six Dinara Safina of Russia, and unseeded Li Na of China stunned the reigning Wimbledon tennis champion Venus Williams, the Women’s Singles became wide open.

Whatever you want to say about tennis at the Olympic Games, I think the players and fans will both agree that this year’s Olympics tennis competition was full of dramatic moments.

Some matches like the Blake Gonzalez clash of the titans and the epic men’s doubles contest where Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson of Sweden edged Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra of France 7-6(6), 4-6, 19-17 were absolutely sensational.

The belief among all the competitors that winning a medal in the Olympic Games can seal your place forever in a special history that is revisited once every four years is very powerful. Also playing for one’s country is an emotional experience. It motivated many of these top tennis players to compete in singles and doubles matches twice a day in tremendous humidity and heat until the early hours of the morning.

Six-time Grand Slam singles champion Boris Becker won a gold medal for Germany in the doubles with Michael Stich in 1992. Becker recently told a press conferece: “I mention my gold medal in the same breath as I mention my Wimbledon trophies.''

This helps explain Roger Federer’s fierce determination (and eventual joy) to win the gold medal in doubles competition with his partner Stanislaus Wawrinka of Switzerland. It helps explain the breakthrough gold medal of 26 yr old Elena Dementieva of Russia, a perennial top ten tennis player who has never won a Grand Slam title, After the match an emotional Elena said:“Winning the Olympic gold medal after all these years playing tennis is one of my dreams come true.”

What explains Novak Djokovic ripping off his shirt and throwing it and all his racquets into the cheering crowd upon winning his match against James Blake for the Olympic bronze medal? The amicable 21- year-old Djokovic recently told Jay Leno on The Tonight Show that “Its every professional athlete’s dream to compete in the Olympics because it’s the world sporting event with the most tradition. For me the opportunity to play tennis at the Beijing Olympics and represent my country is going to be a great privilege and honor.” In fact, after Novak tossed his shirt into the stands he draped himself with a Serbian flag and paraded around the court.

Could this desire to become part of Olympic history and win a medal for your home country help explain the repeated gold medal performances of the Williams sisters in the Olympics doubles competition, or the drive of Chinese pair of Yang Zi and Zheng Jie who fought so hard for the bronze medal after having won gold in Athens in 2004?

It also puts into perspective the anger and frustration of first time Olympian 28 year old American James Blake who came so close to winning a medal. Perhaps it helps explain what caused the tears of No. 1 seed Ana Ivanovic who called her withdrawal from the Beijing Olympics competition due to a painful hand injury, “The worst moment of my career.”

The Beijing, China Olympics tennis competition put a human face on many of the players we follow from a distance during the course of the year. We shared Roger’s Federer’s deep disappointment in being shut out of a medal in the singles tournament for the third straight Olympics and then we rejoiced with him when he won his first medal, a gold one in the doubles.

We were happy for Rafael Nadal who joyfully and masterfully won his gold medal and rightfully ascends this week to the number one tennis ranking. He's already in the history books as one of the greatest-ever clay court players for his four French Open tennis titles, but with the Wimbledon and Olympic titles, he's now edging towards being one of the all-time greatest tennis players. This is the peak of his career, and he's a worthy Olympic champion.

We thought it could be the coming of age of Chinese tennis when Li Na upset Venus Williams 7-5, 7-5 and the crowd at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre went wild. In fact, my hat’s off to the Chinese tournament officials for their gracious hosting of this event under difficult weather conditions and to the thousands of Chinese tennis fans who are quickly learning to enjoy and applaud the finer points of a tennis match. In addition, they have a fantastic facility here in Beijing in which to develop new talent.

So let’s look forward to 2012 when the Summer Olympic Games will be held in London and we can dust off our fond memories of this great Beijing Olympics Tennis tournament. It will make our favorite players’ pursuit of an Olympic medal all that more compelling.

'Ni Hao' and goodbye from the Olympic Tennis Centre for the last time! It’s been a privilege and an honor to report the news from the 2008 Beijing Olympics Tennis Competition.

David Marcus filed daily news reports on the Beijing China Olympic tennis competition this week as senior editor for the Beijing China Olympic Tennis News.

Marcus is also the President of Own the Zone Sporting Goods a company that manufactures and distributes the innovative OTZ band vibration dampeners for tennis racquets. The dampeners are sold in selected pro shops and stores throughout the world and can be purchased at www.otzsports.com.

 

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