Top tennis players heading to Olympics
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-07-02 14:52

Top-ranked Roger Federer and No 2 Andy Roddick head the list of 27 of the leading 30 men's players who will compete in the tennis event at the Athens Olympics.

Justine Henin-Hardenne leads the women's entry list, which features seven of the top 10 in the rankings, including Venus and Serena Williams.

Federer will be Switzerland's sole entry in the men's singles and will play doubles with Yves Allegro.

Roddick's US team-mates are Taylor Dent, Vince Spadea, Mardy Fish and the doubles pair of twins Bob and Mike Bryan. Roddick and Fish will also play doubles.

Argentina will field a strong singles contingent with French Open champion Gaston Gaudio, No 3 Guillermo Coria, No 4 David Nalbandian and No 18 Juan Ignacio Chela.

Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Moya, Britain's Tim Henman and Germany's Rainer Schuettler are also in the singles draw.

Notable absentees are former No 1 and Grand Slam tournament champions Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt.

Venus Williams returns to defend her singles gold medal and will partner sister Serena to defend their doubles title. Jennifer Capriati, who won gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and Chanda Rubin are also in the singles draw.

Martina Navratilova, who last week became the oldest woman since 1922 to win a singles match at Wimbledon, will make her Olympic debut at 47, partnering Lisa Raymond in the doubles.

Henin-Hardenne will be Belgium's only competitor after Kim Clijsters withdrew because of a sponsorship dispute.

French Open champion Anastasia Myskina heads the Russian squad, which also includes 2000 silver medalist Elena Dementieva.