Wimbledon may have served up some early surprises for Australian fans, but six Aussies have been granted Olympic passes to return to the All England Club for the London Olympics.
Wimbledon may have served up some early surprises for Australian fans, but six Aussies have been granted Olympic passes to return to the All England Club for the London Olympics.
Gold Coast duo Samantha Stosur (No.5) and Bernard Tomic (No.27), received direct acceptance into the singles events by virtue of their world rankings today.
Lleyton Hewitt was also granted a wildcard into the men’s singles event on the eve of his tenth anniversary since winning the 2002 Wimbledon singles title.
In women’s doubles, Jarmila Gajdosova and Anastasia Rodionova have been selected alongside Casey Dellacqua who will combine with Stosur as a second Australian doubles pairing.
As Stosur says, the Olympic Games represent a unique opportunity for athletes to hunt for a prize that only comes around every four years.
“The Olympics are really special and I love being a part of a Team and competing for my country,” said Stosur, who lines up for her third Olympics.
“The memories I have from past Olympics are some of my most cherished, so I am really excited for London. It is so much fun to stay in the village and to see all the other athletes compete. I love the team spirit that the Australian Teams have and can’t wait to cheer on my many Australian teammates as they compete in their events.”
At the 2004 Athens Olympics Stosur witnessed teammate and friend Alicia Molik win bronze- Australia’s first tennis singles medal in Olympic history.
Four years later, Stosur was knocked out of the Beijing Games by Serena Williams in the second round. The Queenslander then became Australia’s first female Grand Slam singles champion in 31 years when she defeated Williams in US Open final last year.
Accustomed to making history, in 2011 Tomic became the youngest Wimbledon quarter-finalist since Boris Becker in 1986. Olympic Section Manager and dual Olympic medallist Todd Woodbridge is confident of what Tomic and Hewitt, who thrives in the Davis Cup-like atmosphere created at the Olympics, can achieve in London.
“We have a good chance of something happening at the Olympics even though we won’t be medal favourites,” Woodbridge said.
“It will be the pinnacle of the Olympics to be playing at the home of tennis at Wimbledon and I think in terms of the whole Games, tennis will get a huge amount of coverage out of all the sports because of this venue.”
For the first time in history the famous all-white policy at The All England Club will be overthrown for the Olympics and athletes will be free to wear their national colours.
The Olympic tennis tournament begins on day two of the Games. Among the top-56 automatic entrants for men and women, top-ranked players Novak Djokovic (Serbia), Rafael Nadal (Spain) and Maria Sharapova (Russia) have also been given the honour of carrying their national flags into the Opening Ceremony.
Mixed doubles pairings, which return to the Olympic program for the first time since 1924, will be determined during the Games from the pool of players available.
Please note additional players may still receive positions as the International Tennis Federation continues to allocate quota places until July 20.
All Olympic tennis teams are capped at four men and four women per nation. These athletes compete across the singles, doubles and mixed doubles.
Taya Conomos
AOC
