Athens 2004 Official Report - LA84 Foundation

Left page:
Nicolas Massu of Chile follows
through on his serve to Mardy Fish
of the United States in the men's
singles tennis gold medal match.
Massu won two Olympic gold
medals in Athens, the first ever for
Chile.
© Getty Images/C. Brunskill
Tennis
Competition Sequence
The Olympic Tennis competition took place within the span of eight days (15-22 August).
Wed Thu Fr Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fr Sat Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fr
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
Tennis was first introduced to the Olympic
Games in Athens, Greece, in I896, as one of the
nine sports of the programme. There were just
two events, the men's singles and doubles
(there were no women competing in Athens).
During those Games, Dionysios Kasdaglis was
the silver winner in the singles event, whilst the
silver medal in doubles event was won also by
Kasdaglis teamed with Dimitrios Petrokokkinos.
Tennis left the Olympics in 1924, after clashes
between the IOC and the ITF over the
organisation of the Tennis competition, and
did not return until 1984, when Tennis was reintroduced
in Los Angeles, as a demonstration
sport. Tennis went on to become a full Olympic
sport again at the 1988 Seoul Games.
Description
Tennis is an attractive, dynamic and highly
popular sport at all skill levels. However;
athletes must develop special skills such as
technique, stamina, speed, reflexes and
imagination, in order to compete at a high level
successfully. Tennis is played between two or
four athletes. To score a point, Tennis players
have to hit the ball with their rackets, so that it
lands on the opponent's court, without the
opponent being able to hit it back. The winner
is the athlete or pair to win three sets of six
games, each in the men's events (best-of-five set
match) and two sets in the women's events
(best-of-three set match). A tennis court is
23,7m x 8,23m for singles and a 23,77m x
10,97m for doubles. Tournament courts have
lines marked out for both singles and doubles.
The court is divided into two by a net, which is
0,914 m high. Each game consists of four points.
The first one is called 15, the second 30, and the
third 40. The fourth is simply the "game" ball:
the athlete or pair wins the "game" provided
that there is a two-point difference. In case of a
40-40 tie (deuce), the athlete or pair must win
two subsequent points (advantage, "game").
The Athens Olympic Tennis Tournament was
played on hard courts and consisted of four
events:
Men's: 2
Singles
Doubles
Competitors: 172
Event
Men
Singles
Doubles
Women
Singles
Doubles
Venue
Women's:2
Singles
Doubles
Players
64
64
64
64
Sat Sun
28 29
Total: 4
NOC
During the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Games,
Tennis competitions were staged at the
Olympic Tennis Centre of the Athens Olympic
Sports Complex (OAKA), situated at Maroussi.
A total often courts was used for the
competition: the centre court (8.600 seats),
court 1 (4.000 seats), court 2 (2.000 seats) and
courts 3-9 (200 seats). Competition took place
within the span of eight days (15-22 August),
whilst the total of men and women athletes
competing were 172.
32
25
32
22
Official Report of the XXVIII Olympiad 409