Newport Shaping Up as an Olympic Preview

Written by: Staff on 29th June 2012

Newport Shaping Up as an Olympic Preview

epa03288577 Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia returns to Mikhail Youzhny of Russia during their third round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 29 June 2012. EPA/JONATHAN BRADY |

Ordinarily, when Wimbledon is finished only Newport is played on grass and many pleayers are thinking hardcourts. This year, however, the Olympics are played on grass and that means that the men can have a warm-up opportunity to play on Newport ’s grass.

The Newport tournament hosts a player field of 32 singles players and 16 doubles teams, and included in this summer’s very strong field will be 17 players who are bound for the Olympics, including 13 singles players and 2 doubles teams. In all, Olympic athletes from 10 nations are committed to play Newport , including more than half of Team USA . The top eight singles players in the draw are all ranked within the world top 60 on the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, and all eight have been selected to compete on behalf of their nation in the Olympic games.

Newport will be played July 9 – 15, 2012.

Team USA is the largest contingent that will be represented at this year’s Campbell ‘s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships. John Isner, the No. 1 American and current world No. 11 ranked player, will return to defend his title at Newport . Isner has been selected to compete in both singles and doubles at the Olympics, where he’ll be paired with Andy Roddick for doubles. Also returning to Newport this year will be Donald Young, current world No. 51 and a member of Team USA . In doubles competition, the highly popular and successful pairing of Bob and Mike Bryan will make their first appearance in Newport since 2002, when they won the title. Together the identical twin brothers have won a record-breaking 78 titles, including 11 Grand Slam tournament titles.

Canada , Japan , and Belgium are also well represented in the Newport player field, with two Olympic athletes from each nation in the field.

Current world No. 20 Kei Nishikori and world No. 58 Go Soeda, the No. 1 and 2 Japanese players, respectively, will both compete in Newport .

Australian tennis great Lleyton Hewitt is among the Olympians headlining Newport this summer. The former world No.1 and two-time Grand Slam champion will be making his third appearance as part of Australia ‘s Olympic team.

Other Olympians scheduled to compete in Newport include Uzbekistan ‘s No. 1 and world No. 43 Denis Istomin, Alex Bogomolov, Jr. of Russia , Gilles Muller of Luxembourg , Lukas Lacko of Slovakia , and the British doubles pairing of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins.

Topics: 10sballs.com, Alex Bogomolov, Andy Roddick, Denis Istomin, Gilles Muller, grass court tennis, John Isner, Kei Nishikori, Lukas Lacko, Newport tennis news, Sports, Wimbledon