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When Irishman
John Boland travelled to Athens for the first modern Olympic
Games in 1896, he had no idea he would return home with the
gold medal in tennis. But then, he had no idea he would
compete either - he went as a spectator.
Times have
changed dramatically for Olympic tennis since then. Today's
Olympic tennis players include some of the highest-profile
athletes in the world. Accustomed to five-star hotels and
high-stakes prize money, at the Olympic Games they will bunk
in the Olympic Village and compete for nothing but a gold
medal.
Tennis was
dropped from the Olympic programme after 1924 amid turmoil
over such issues as where to draw the line between
amateurism and professionalism, and it didn't return as a
medal sport until 1988. Today, Olympic competition includes
men's and women's singles and men's and women's doubles.
As with most tournaments, Olympic tennis is a knockout
competition - one loss and you're out. All matches except
the finals are played to the best of three sets except the
men's singles and doubles finals, which are played to the
best of five. In all four divisions, the semi-finals winners
play to decide the gold and silver medals, and the
semi-finals losers play for the bronze.
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