Tennis

To be a champion tennis player you need great endurance, quick-wittedness and precise execution with the racquet. The next big names in world tennis will be on show in Singapore for the Youth Olympic Games.

The exact origin of tennis is uncertain but a type of handball existed in ancient Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East. A form of tennis was played in France in the 12th century and it reached the British Isles 200 years later. In the latter part of the 1800s, lawn tennis was developing as a worldwide sport with the Wimbledon tournament first being held in 1877.

Tennis appeared on the Olympic program in Athens in 1896 and remained until Paris 1924. Due to difficulties in solving the amateur-professional divide, the sport disappeared until Seoul 1988. Its return to the Olympic fold was heralded when it appeared as a demonstration sport four years earlier in Los Angeles.

Qualification

The Singapore 2010 YOG tennis competition will comprise singles and doubles competitions for boys and girls. All competitions will be conducted in a single elimination format. There will be 32 players in both the boys’ and girls’ singles competitions, and 16 pairs in the doubles competitions.

Of the 32 competitors 28 will qualify from the Junior World Combined Ranking and Professional Singles Ranking in 2009 and 2010. Then there are an additional three Universality places and Singapore as host nation are allocated a place.

The ITF will select doubles teams from players accepted in the singles events. There may be a maximum of one pair per National Olympic Committee and a maximum of 16 pairs in total. The draw for doubles teams will take place before the competition.

Australia hopes to send 4 tennis players (2 boys and 2 girls) to compete at Singapore 2010.

Age Group

Athletes competing in this sport must be born between 1/1/92 and 31/12/93.

Competition Format

For the singles competitions, all matches will be determined through the best of three tie-break sets. For the doubles competitions, all matches will be determined by two tie-break sets and a match tie-break game (10 points) in place of a third set.

Singles
Eight players are seeded and the remaining 24 players are drawn. The winner of each match advances to the next round. Players who lose their match in the first round will play in the loser’s consolidation round. Players who lose matches in subsequent rounds are eliminated. The winners of the two semi-final matches will advance to the final. The winner of this match receives the gold medal and the loser receives the silver medal. The losers of the two semi-final matches compete for the bronze medal. All matches will be the best of three tie-break sets.

Doubles
Four pairs are seeded and the remaining 12 pairs are drawn. The winners of each match advance to the next round. The losers of each match are eliminated. The winners of the two semi-final matches will advance to the final. The winners of this match receive the gold medal and the losers receive the silver medal. The losers of the two semi-final matches compete for the bronze medal. All matches will be of two tie-break sets and a match tie-break game (10 points) in place of a third set. No-Ad scoring will be used.

Draw
The draw shall be conducted in public by the ITF, and will be made not later than 24 hours prior to the start of the Singapore 2010 YOG Tennis competition. Where practical, two players from the same National Olympic Committee shall not be placed in the same half of the draw.

Venue - Kallang Tennis Centre

Kallang Tennis Centre is the training venue for the national team and national youth teams. It has 14 courts and temporary seating stands for 2,000 have been built around the main court for fans and the media during the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games. The archery field is close by as is the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

 
Australia and Olympic tennis

Australia can lament the hiatus in tennis’ appearance in the Olympic program as it surely would have picked up many more medals when the Australian men were dominating the world’s tournaments in the 1950s and 1960s.

Since its return as an Olympic sport, tennis has provided Australia with one gold, one silver and three bronze medals. The gold and silver medals were won by The Woodies (Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge) in the men’s doubles at Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 respectively. Elizabeth Smylie and Wendy Turnbull won the bronze medal in the women’s doubles at Seoul 1988 and Rachel McQuillan with Nicole Provis did likewise at Barcelona 1992. At Athens 2004, Alicia Molik won Australia’s first individual tennis medal, a bronze in the women’s singles.