U.S.A. TEAM ROSTER FOR THE 2016 OLYMPIC TENNIS IN RIO — PREVIEW NOTES AND TIDBITS OF INFO

Written by: Staff on 4th August 2016

U.S.A. TEAM ROSTER FOR THE 2016 OLYMPIC TENNIS IN RIO -- PREVIEW NOTES AND TIDBITS OF INFO

epa05452757 The Olympic Tennis Centre is seen behind flowers in the Olympic Park three days before the opening of the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 02 August 2016. EPA/ZSOLT CZEGLEDI HUNGARY OUT |

2016 Olympic Games

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Olympic Tennis Center, Rio Olympic Park

Tennis Competition Dates: August 6-14

U.S. Olympic Team Info: www.teamusa.org/media/news; www.rio2016.com; http://www.rio.itftennis.com/olympics/

PREVIEW NOTES

The United States – the leader in Olympic tennis medals since the sport was reinstated as a medal Olympic event in 1988 – expects continued success in 2016.

The Olympic tennis competition at the Rio Olympic Games will include 64-player draws for both men’s and women’s singles, 32-team draws for men’s and women’s doubles, and 16 teams in mixed doubles, which will be taking place for the second Games in a row after returning to the London Games for the first time since 1924.

The Olympic tennis event will take place at the Olympic Tennis Center in the Rio Olympic Park, located in the Barra Cluster, and will run from Aug. 6-14. There will be a total of 10 match courts and six practice courts. Center Court will seat 10,000 people, with Court 1 and Court 2 having 5,000 and 3,000 seats, respectively. All outside courts will have 250 seats. There will be two sessions on Center Court for the first five days, with one session on all other courts, and all matches will be played on a hard court.

The United States has won 13 Olympic gold medals in men’s and women’s tennis, more than any other nation since tennis was reinstated as an Olympic sport in 1988. The U.S. team once again hopes to compete for medals across all five disciplines with a roster featuring 22-time Grand Slam singles champion and four-time Olympic gold medalist Serena Williams and seven-time Grand Slam singles champion and four-time Olympic gold medalist Venus Williams.

2016 U.S. OLYMPIC TENNIS TEAM ROSTER

Brian Baker (singles, men’s doubles)

Steve Johnson (singles, men’s doubles)

Madison Keys (singles)

Denis Kudla (singles)

Bethanie Mattek-Sands (women’s doubles)

Rajeev Ram (men’s doubles)

Jack Sock (singles, men’s doubles)

Sloane Stephens (singles)

CoCo Vandeweghe (women’s doubles)

Serena Williams (singles, women’s doubles)

Venus Williams (singles, women’s doubles)

WHERE TO WATCH

With Rio just one hour ahead of the Eastern Time zone, the 2016 Summer Games will be the most live Olympics ever. NBCU will present 2,084 hours of Olympic linear programming across 11 networks: broadcast networks NBC and TELEMUNDO (Spanish language); cable channels Bravo, CNBC, Golf Channel, MSNBC, NBC Sports Network (NBCSN), NBC UNIVERSO (Spanish language), and USA Network.

Bravo will once again serve as the home of Olympic tennis beginning on Saturday, August 6, and concluding on Sunday, August 14, with the men’s singles final. The women’s singles final airs on Saturday, August 13. For each of the first five days, Bravo will televise Olympic tennis for more than 12 hours, from 9:30 a.m. ET until 10 p.m. ET. The final four days will each consist of eight hours of coverage, from 11 a.m. ET to 7 p.m. ET. This will be the third time that Bravo has hosted Olympic coverage (2004 and 2012).

NBCOlympics.com will provide more than 4,500 hours of live event competition from the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. The site will serve as the preeminent destination for Olympic content and the exclusive home of Olympic video coverage, featuring, for the first time, live streaming coverage of all 2016 Rio Olympic Games competition, plus event rewinds and extensive video highlights.

Andy Murray (L) of Great Britain practices with compatriot Kyle Edmund (R) on center court at the Olympic Tennis Center in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 02 August 2016. The Rio 2016 Olympic Games take place from 05 to 21 August. EPA/ERIK S. LESSER

U.S. OLYMPIC TENNIS TEAM ROSTER BREAKDOWN

2 Olympic veterans WOMEN (2): Serena Williams, Venus Williams

9 first-time Olympians MEN (5): Brian Baker, Steve Johnson, Denis Kudla, Rajeev Ram, Jack Sock

WOMEN (4): Madison Keys, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Sloane Stephens, and Coco Vandeweghe

2 former collegiansFormer Collegians MEN (2): Steve Johnson (USC), Rajeev Ram (Illinois)

Oldest MEN (32-years-old): Rajeev Ram

WOMEN (36-years-old): Venus Williams

Youngest MEN (23-years-old): Jack Sock (one month and seven days older than Denis Kudla)

WOMEN (21-years-old): Madison Keys

U.S. OLYMPIC TENNIS FACTS

DOMINATING THE WOMEN’S GAME

· The United States won all Olympic gold medal opportunities in women’s tennis at the 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2012 Olympic Games. Since 1988, the United States has won all gold medal opportunities in women’s tennis with the exception of four. (.714 winning pct. in winning gold medals since 1988). The U.S. did not win a gold medal in women’s tennis in 2004. Prior to that, the lone gold medal won by a non-American since 1988 was at the 1988 Olympic women’s singles competition, when Steffi Graf of West Germany won gold over Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina.

OVERALL U.S. MEDAL COUNT

· The United States has won more Olympic medals in men’s and women’s tennis than any other nation since tennis was re-instated as an Olympic sport in 1988. The United States’ medal total (21) is 10 more than the nearest other medal-winning nations (Spain with 11).

· The United States has won six times as many Olympic gold medals in men’s and women’s tennis than any other nation since tennis was reinstated as an Olympic sport in 1988. (USA – 13 gold medals; Russia, Germany/West Germany, Switzerland, and Chile – 2)

YEARS FOR TENNIS IN THE OLYMPICS

· The 2016 Games marks the 15th time that tennis has been a full medal sport at the Olympics (Olympic tennis years were 1896-1900-1904-1908-1912, then 1920-1924, and 1988-1992-1996-2000-2004- 2008-2012-2016).

ORIGINS OF OLYMPIC TENNIS

TENNIS IN THE MODERN GAMES

Tennis was one of the nine sports on the Olympic program at the first Modern Olympics in 1896 in Athens, Greece. The first Olympic tennis champion was John Boland, an Irishmen vacationing in Greece at the time of the first Modern Games and entered into the tennis competition upon the urging of a Greek classmate from Oxford. Boland, who would later found the University of Ireland and serve Britain as a member of Parliament, won the singles competition in an eight-man field and paired with a German, Fritz Traun, to sweep the doubles title.

Tennis was a fixture on the Olympic program through the 1924 Games in Paris. The International Tennis Federation – the international governing body for tennis – and the International Olympic Committee saw differences on the definition of amateurism, and on whether Wimbledon should be played in Olympic years. What resulted was the exclusion of tennis from the Olympic Games as an official medal sport until 1988 in Seoul, South Korea.

THE RETURN OF TENNIS AS A FULL MEDAL SPORT

Tennis triumphantly returned to the Olympic Games in 1988 in Seoul, becoming the first Olympic sport to allow professionals to compete (basketball followed suit in 1992). Steffi Graf of West Germany completed the rarest feat in the sport by capping a “Golden Slam” at the Seoul Games, having won all four major titles in professional tennis (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open) heading into the 1988 Games. Coincidentally, Graf’s husband – American Andre Agassi – is the only other player to win all for major singles titles and an Olympic gold medal in singles during their career.

Topics: 10sballs, Olympic tennis, Rio 2016, Rio De Janeiro, Sports, Tennis News

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corremari says:

August 4, 2016 at 12:55 pm

RT @10sBalls_com: U.S.A. Team Roster For The #Rio2016 #OlympicTennis — Preview Notes And Tidbits Of Info
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MDSmith1824 says:

August 4, 2016 at 2:08 pm

RT @TennisNewsOne: U.S.A. TEAM ROSTER FOR THE 2016 OLYMPIC TENNIS IN RIO — PREVIEW NOTES AND TIDBITS OF INFO https://t.co/Jgc10Pa5t2 #tennis