Main news. Tennis Tennis tournament at the Rio Olympics
11th century beginnings
The earliest recognisable relative to tennis, as we know it, was "jeu de paume", played in 11th century France. Played in a monastery courtyard, the game used the walls and sloping roofs as part of the court and the palm of the hand to hit the ball.
Tennis overtakes croquet
By the late 19th century, the popularity of lawn tennis had overtaken croquet in England. For this reason, the All England Croquet Club embraced the sport and designated croquet laws to be used for tennis. It was this natural supply of venues combined with the already existing framework for a racquet game that resulted in the birth of the modern game in England.
An international sport
In 1913, lawn tennis was becoming increasingly popular worldwide. Therefore it seemed natural that the existing National Tennis Associations should join forces to ensure the game was uniformly structured. An international conference was held between 12 nations in Paris and the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) was created.
professional dilemma
Tennis has a long Olympic history but withdrew from the program after 1924. It did not return as a medal sport until 1988. Professionals are now welcome to compete, and the Olympic competition includes men's and women's singles and men's and women's doubles.
Tennis is a game played with a ball and rackets on a special court (a court 23.77 m long and 8.23 m wide), divided by a net fixed at a height of 1.07 m. The mesh is stretched over square and round posts with a side and diameter of no more than 15 cm.
Known since the days of the Old French game, scoring is based on dividing the day into 24 hours (up to 24 games were played). In turn, the hours were divided into four quarters; each successful ball was equivalent to one quarter of an hour - 15 minutes corresponded to 15 points. Thus, one game lasted up to 60 points, and the calculation was carried out as follows: 15, 30, 45, 60. Over time, the number of games was reduced to 6 in one set, and every third successful ball now counts for 10 points, i.e. instead of 45, 40 is announced.
OLYMPIC GAMES
Tennis competitions first appeared at the 1896 Games in Athens and continued until the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, after which they were cancelled. Then tennis was included in the Games program twice as a demonstration sport, until it again entered the competitive program of the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. Initially, the competition was for men; women's disciplines appeared at the 1900 Games in Paris.
RUSSIA
On August 18, 1878, the “Manifesto on the global development of lawn tennis in Russia” was published, proclaimed by an initiative group led by the writer and historian Dmitry Solovyov. By the beginning of the 20th century, there were 12 large tennis clubs in Russia.
The most titled tennis player in Russia is still Yevgeny Kafelnikov, winner of two Grand Slam tournaments (Roland Garros 1996 and Australian Open 1999) and Olympic champion in Sydney 2000 in singles. Marat Safin also won the Grand Slam tournaments twice (Australian Open 2005 and US Open 2000).
The most titled tennis player in Russia is Maria Sharapova. She won the Grand Slam tournaments five times (Wimbledon 2004, US Open 2006, Australian Open 2008 and Roland Garros twice - in 2012 and 2014).
In 2008, Elena Dementieva became the champion of the Beijing Games. In Dementieva’s collection, this medal is the second at the Olympic Games: in 2000 in Sydney, the Russian woman won a silver award. The tennis tournament in Beijing was a real triumph for Russian women's tennis: the entire podium was occupied by representatives of the domestic tennis school. Dinara Safina won the silver medal, Vera Zvonareva won the bronze medal.
Successful performance at the Olympics continued in London in 2012. Maria Sharapova won the silver medal in singles, while Nadezhda Petrova and Maria Kirilenko won bronze medals.
At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the Russian team again won a gold medal in tennis. For the first time in the history of Russian tennis, it was won in doubles by Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina.
Photo - Sergey Kivrin and Andrey Golovanov
Tennis is a game played with a ball and rackets on a special court (a court 23.77 m long and 8.23 m wide), divided by a net fixed at a height of 1.07 m. The net is stretched over square and round posts with a side and a diameter of no more than 15 cm. The goal of the game is to hit the ball with a racket to the opponent’s half so that he cannot hit it or hits it in violation of the rules. 2 players (or 2 teams of 2 people) are on opposite sides of the net. One of them is the server and puts the ball into play and serves. The second player is the receiver of the serve. The players' task is to direct the ball with racket strikes towards the opponent's side, while hitting the ball within the boundaries of the court. The player must have time to hit the ball before it touches the court more than once. The player who made a mistake loses the rally, and his opponent scores a point. Players need to score points to win games. By collecting games, one of the players wins the set. To win the match, you need to win 2 out of 3, or 3 out of 5 sets. As soon as one of the players reaches the required number of sets won, the match ends.
The upcoming tennis tournament of the XXXI Summer Olympic Games will be the fifteenth in the history of the Olympics and the eighth in the recent history of tennis - after tennis returned to the list of Olympic sports in 1988.
Five sets of medals will be played at the Olympic tournament: in singles and doubles for men and women, as well as in mixed doubles. The tournament will be held under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee, with the support of the ITF. Participants in the tennis tournament at the 2016 Olympics will not receive points in the ATP and WTA rankings.
All matches at the tournament will be played in a three-set format. The exception is the final of the men's singles tournament, which will be held in a five-set format. The decisive set in all categories except mixed doubles will be played without a tiebreaker. In case of equality in games in the mixed doubles, the winner will be determined using the “championship tie-break” system.
In men's singles, the first seed was Serbian Novak Djokovic. The world ranking leader will start with a match against Argentinean Juan Martin Del Potro, to whom he lost in the bronze medal match at the 2012 Olympics in London. Already in the second round, Novak can meet with the Portuguese Joao Sousa, whose starting opponent is the Dutchman Robin Haase. Djokovic's most likely opponent in the third round match is American Jack Sock, who has secured his status as a Top 30 player.
In the fight for reaching the semi-finals of the Games, the Serbian player can meet with the Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or the Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, who already has two titles in 2016, won in hard court competitions. Luxembourger Gilles Muller is quite capable of preventing the first one, while the Russian Andrey Kuznetsov will try to block the second one at the start.
Also at the top of the bracket is Spaniard Rafael Nadal, who will begin his performance with a match against Argentine Federico Delbonis. Only the Frenchman Gilles Simon, whose results lately have not caused optimism, can impose a truly serious competition on Rafael in the fight for reaching the quarter-finals of the competition. The fact that he has not yet fully recovered from an injury to his left wrist plays against Rafael. It is obvious that if Nadal’s health allows him to perform at full strength, then the Spaniard will most likely fight for a medal of the highest standard.
In the third quarter, the Japanese Kei Nishikori, who last week reached the Masters final in Toronto, will begin his tournament journey. In the first round he will meet with Spaniard Albert Ramos, who had an excellent season on the dirt. Next, Kei will most likely face Lithuanian Richardas Berankis. The Japanese's problems may begin at the stage of the 1/8 finals, where he can play with the German Philipp Kohlschreiber.
The fight in the final quarter of the bracket promises to be interesting as well. Of course, the status of the main favorite here belongs to Andy Murray, who won gold at the London Olympics. This is not surprising, because the Briton won the Grand Slam tournament for the first time in three years - Wimbledon.
The lot was favorable to Andy in Rio de Janeiro. Murray can meet with any dangerous opponent only in the third round, and even then the most likely contender for this - the Frenchman Benoit Paire - is far from in optimal shape.
Only in the quarter finals can the Briton, whose qualification to this stage is beyond doubt, face any difficulties, although, frankly, neither the Spaniard David Ferrer nor the American Steve Johnson should become a serious obstacle for Murray.
The main character at the top will be the leader of the world ranking table, American Serena Williams. The current champion of the Games will begin her tournament journey with a fight with Australian Daria Gavrilova.
In the second round, Serena can meet Frenchwoman Alize Cornet, whose starting opponent will be Swede Johanna Larsson. In the match for reaching the quarterfinals, Williams Jr. will most likely fight with Ukrainian Elina Svitolina. In the quarter-final match, Serena’s opponent could be Italian Roberta Vinci or Czech Petra Kvitova.
In the second quarter of the top half of the tournament bracket, Spaniard Garbine Muguruza and American Venus Williams will start performing. However, Swiss Timea Bacsinszky and Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova are quite capable of preventing them from meeting in the quarterfinals.
Muguruza will start her performance with a fight against Serbian Jelena Jankovic. Already in the second round, the Spaniard can fight with the Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu, and in the 1/8 finals of the Olympics she can play with Pavlyuchenkova.
Venus Williams will compete against Belgian Kirsten Flipkens in the opening round. Already in the next match, the American can play with the Czech Lucie Safarova, and Venus’ opponent in the third round match may be Bacsinszky.
The third quarter of the tournament bracket turned out to be no less interesting. Here the fourth racket of the tournament, Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, will begin her performance. In the first round, Agnieszka will meet with Chinese Zheng Saisai. The Polish woman's first truly dangerous opponent could be the Russian Daria Kasatkina, with whom Radwanska can fight in the second round.
Agnieszka will most likely fight with Czech Barbora Strycova to reach the quarterfinals of the competition. In the quarter-final match, the Polish woman can play with American Madison Keys, who a week ago became vice-champion of the competition in Montreal.
In the second quarter of the lower half of the tournament bracket, the German Angelique Kerber, who received the second number when seeded, will begin the competition. The winner of the Australian Open will meet Colombian Mariana Duque-Marina at the start of the tournament. Despite the fact that Angelique was unable to reach the final of the tournament in Montreal, she looks like the favorite in her part of the bracket.
In the second round of the tournament, the German will play the winner of the meeting between Canadian Eugenie Bouchard and American Sloane Stephens, and then, apparently, will face Australian Samantha Stosur, who received the 13th seed.
At the top of this quarter, the focus will be on Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova. In the first round, Svetlana will face off against Chinese Jiang Wang. Then either Romanian Monica Niculescu or Veronica Cepede-Roig from Paraguay will stand in Kuznetsova’s way. In the third round, the Russian woman can meet with Briton Johanna Konta.
Russian girls showed outstanding results in the tennis tournament.
Elena Dementieva, Dinara Safina And Vera Zvonareva completely occupied the podium, winning all the medals in the women's singles tournament and at the same time bringing the Russian team victory in the overall medal standings of the tennis tournament. This is the first time since 1908 that the entire podium was occupied by representatives of one country (100 years before the Russians, the British managed to do this).
Russian pedestal. Dinara Safina, Elena Dementieva, Vera Zvonareva
In the final with a score of 3:6, 7:5, 6:3, Dementieva snatched victory from Safina, and in the match for third place, Zvonareva beat the host of the competition without any problems Na Lee - 6:0, 7:5.
Elena Dementieva
Sisters dominated in women's doubles Williams, repeating its Sydney 2000 success. And the eldest of the sisters, Venus, became the first woman in history to win 3 Olympic gold medals in tennis (in 2000 in Sydney, an American won gold in both categories).
Venus and Serena Williams
The Spaniard won the men's tournament Rafael Nadal, beating the Chilean in the final Fernando Gonzalez.
Rafael Nadal on his way to Beijing gold
Gonzalez, who won bronze in Athens 2004 and silver in Beijing, became the first tennis player since 1920 to win a singles medal at two consecutive Olympics. Plus, Fernando collected a full set of Olympic medals - four years earlier in Athens, he won gold in doubles (with Nicholas Massu) and bronze in singles.
Podium of the men's singles tournament. From left to right: Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) - silver, Rafael Nadal (Spain) - gold, Novak Djokovic (Serbia) - bronze.
Swiss Roger Federer, considered the main favorite of the tournament, sensationally lost at the 1/4 final stage and, thus, was unable to compete for prizes in singles. However, the famous Swiss was not left without a medal. Paired with Stanislas Wawrinka Federer won the men's doubles tournament.
Stanislas Wawrinka and Roger Federer celebrate their victory in the men's doubles tournament
All winners:
Men's singles
1. Rafael Nadal (Spain)
2. Fernando Gonzalez (Chile)
3. Novak Djokovic (Serbia).
Women's Singles
1. Elena Dementieva (Russia)
2. Dinara Safina (Russia)
3. Vera Zvonareva (Russia).
Men's doubles
1. Switzerland (Roger Federer, Stanislas Wawrinka)
2. Sweden (Simon Aspelin, Thomas Johansson)
3. USA (Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan).
Women's doubles
1. USA (Serena Williams, Venus Williams)
2. Spain (Anabel Medina Garrigues, Virginia Ruano Pascual)
3. China (Yan Zi, Zheng Jie).
