The Olympic Games would never be what they are today, a meeting of the best athletes on the planet, without the major contribution of tennis, which In Paris 2024 it will celebrate ten editions since it returned to the Olympic program in Seoul’88.
The 92nd Session of the IOC, held in Istanbul in 1987 under the presidency of Juan Antonio Samaranch, took the most revolutionary step adopted by the organization until then in its nearly centennial history: admit tennis as a full Olympic sport, with the door open to all its professional players.
Tennis was Olympic for the first seven Games, between Athens 1896 and Paris 1924and it ceased to be definitive due to disagreements about what distinguished a novice tennis player from a professional, a cursed term in the Olympics at the time.
After appearing as a demonstration sport in 1968 (Manolo Santana defeated Manolo Orantes in the final) and in 1984, In Seoul 1988 it became an official sport and amateurism was struck to death. Through the crack opened by tennis players, NBA players entered in 1992 and in successive editions, professionals from any other sport: hockey, golf, soccer…
The decision to accept tennis players, who already filled the lists of the highest paid athletes at the time, was not easy. As described by the British David Miller in his ‘Official History of the Olympic Games and the IOC’, the debate at the 1987 Istanbul Session lasted four hours and over 30 members of the assembly took part.
The German Willi Daume, who headed the commission for the acceptance of new sports, argued that the acceptance of professionalism was the only way to guarantee the future of Olympicism. American Anita DeFrantz, bronze medalist in rowing in 1976, emphasized that only sports professionals are qualified to reach the top. If the Games want to have the best, it will have to shed the honest view of sport as an amateur activity.
Frenchman Philippe Chatrier, president of the ITF, prepared the ground with Samaranch, a tennis enthusiast.
“That the IOC was in tune with the outside world was evident when, at the opening ceremony of the Seoul Games the following year, Argentina’s flag was carried by tennis star Gabriela Sabatini” says Miller of his work.
OLYMPICS WITH CONDITIONS
The IOC has asked racket professionals for some minimum conditions to be Olympic: cancel their advertising contracts within 15 days of the competition, except for their shirt brand, not participate in any exhibition in South Korea for two weeks before and after the Gameslive in the Olympic Village like the other participants and have good relations with their national federations.
The tennis community itself is divided: John McEnroe says the pros already have enough visibility and advocated reserving the Olympic tournament for fans. Martina Navratilova is worried about the contracts with her sponsors. On the other hand, Steffi Graf, Gabriela Sabatini, Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg immediately announced their participation in the Games.
A STORY FULL OF SURPRISE
The first men’s gold medal of the new era went to Czech Miroslav Mecir (then 12 ATP), who eliminated the Wimbledon champion, Swede Stefan Edberg, in the semifinals and in the final he defeated American Timothy Mayotte 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 and 6-2.
But the shock was given in the women’s tournament by Steffi Graf (1 WTA), whose gold allowed him to become the only player in history (male or female) to win the ‘real’ Golden Slam: he won the ‘big four’ and the Games in the same season, aged just 19 . No one has ever equaled that record.
Gabriela Sabatini won the gold by 6-3 and 6-3.
In Barcelona’92, the Swiss Marc Rosset stripped the Spanish Jordi Arrese (30) of the title in the most tense final of Olympic history, decided 7-6, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6 and 8-6. Rosset was 4-1 in the fifth set but Arrese recovered and the Swiss had to spend more than five hours to beat him. He has never made it past the quarterfinals in a tournament.
In the women’s tournament, American Jennifer Capriati (6) won.. Neither Monica Seles, nor Gabriela Sabatini, nor Martina Navrativola can play because they did not participate in the Federation Cup. Capriati defeated Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in the semifinals and Steffi Graf in the final, 3-6, 6-3 and 6-4, despite the fact that the German had won their previous four matches.
The Atlanta ’96 Games saw two local players emerge victorious: Andre Agassi (7), who struggled to reach the final but had an easy match with Sergi Bruguera (6-2, 6-3 and 6-1), and Lindsay Davenport (10), who defeated Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (7-6 and 6-2) in the final, having won their previous five matches.
In Sydney 2000, Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov (8) won the gold match against German Tommy Haas by 7-6, 3-6, 6-2, 4-6 and 6-3 (the first set was lasted 70 minutes) and the American Venus Williams (3) defeated the Russian Elena Dementieva 6-2 and 6-4.
ATHENS 2004, THE SUMMIT OF CHILEAN TENNIS
The 2004 Athens Games were the glory days of Chilean tennis. Nicolás Massú (14) won the doubles title for the first time with Fernando Gonzálezthe first gold in his country’s Olympic history, and the next day in the individual final he defeated American Mardy Fisch 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3 and 6-4.
The women’s tournament reflected the absolute supremacy of world number one, Belgian Justine Henin. Although she arrived in Athens recovering from a viral infection, she lost only one set in the entire Games and in the final she defeated Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo 6-3, 6-3.
NADAL, OLYMPIC GOLD AND NUMBER ONE
Rafa Nadal (2 ATP) started his participation in the Beijing Games with doubts against the Italian Potito Starace, but then he had a comfortable tournament, until he crossed paths with Serbian Novak Djokovic and had to go to three sets to defeat him in the semifinals (6-4, 1-6 and 6-4). In the final he defeated Fernando González 6-3, 7-6 and 6-3.
Swiss Roger Federer has maintained the world number one for the past four and a half years, but in the Chinese capital he lost in the quarterfinals to American James Blake 6-4, 7-6. Nadal had just won Roland Garros and Wimbledon, both finals against Federer, and a day after winning Olympic gold he appeared for the first time at the top of the ATP rankings.
Russian Elena Dementieva (7) is the women’s champion. For the first time since 1908 a tennis podium was entirely for one country: Dementieva won the final against Dinara Safina (3-6, 7-5 and 6-3) and the bronze went to Vera Zvonareva.
MURRAY’S TWO GOLDEN
The British Andy Murray is the first tennis player to win Olympic gold in two editionsLondon 2012 and Rio 2016.
On the grass at the All England Club, the semifinal between Roger Federer and Argentine Juan Martín del Potro was one of the most spirited matches in Olympic history. It was decided 3-6, 7-6 and 19-17 in favor of the Swiss.
The Federer-Murray gold match was a repeat of the Wimbledon final played a month earlier at the same stage, with Federer winning. But Murray (4) easily won the gold 6-2, 6-1 and 6-4.
More indisputable is the supremacy of Serena Williams (4) in the women’s tournament. He never lost more than five games in any match. She won the final against Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1 and completed the Golden Slam, albeit in different seasons.
Murray (2) reaffirmed his gold in Rio by defeating Del Potro in the final 6-5, 4-6, 6-2 and 7-5.
The surprise was in the women’s tournament with the victory of Puerto Rican Mónica Puig (34), the first non-seeded player to win Olympic gold. To win the first gold medal in her country’s history, she had to win the final against German Angelique Kerber (6-4, 4-6 and 6-1).
The last Olympic tennis champion in Tokyo 2020 was the German Alexander Zverev (5), who after defeating Djokovic in the semifinals defeated the Russian Karen Khachanov in the final by 6-3 and 6-1 (first edition with a final up to the best of three). sets), and the Swiss Belinda Bencic (12), who defeated the Czech Marketa Vondrousova 7-5, 2-6 and 6-3.
Djokovic also lost the bronze medal to Spain’s Pablo Carreño.
Since the Seoul ’88 Games, men’s and women’s doubles tournaments have also been held. The Olympic mixed doubles tournament was added to the program at London 2012.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Jason Root, a professional writer working with Today Times Live, the premier news website. I specialize in sports writing, covering the biggest stories in the world of athletics. With an eye for detail and a passion for storytelling, I provide engaging and informative articles that capture the key elements of any event or issue. My work has been featured on numerous respected websites and publications around the world.
