Medal hopefuls shape up for Olympic tennis event
www.chinaview.cn 2008-08-04 17:29:44   Print

Special report: 2008 Olympic Games     

    BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- As the men's and women's world number one ranking will be surely handed to the new-comers, medal hopefuls for the Beijing Olympics are shaping up for the extravaganza event.

    Rafael Nadal, on back of the Toronto win and by reaching the Cincinnati semifinal, is set to replace the current world No. 1 Roger Federer afer the Games, while Jelena Jankovic will also attain the No.1 rankings in women's part, calling halt to her compatriot Ana Ivanovic's nine-week dominance over the top.

    Jankovic, who crashed out of the quarterfinals of the Montreal Cup after losing to the 19-year-old Dominika Cibulkova last Friday, will become the 18th world number one since 1975.

    "Since I was a young girl, it has been my dream to become number one in the world," Jankovic told the WTA website. "When you get older, at least one day you can say you were number one and no one can take that away from you."

    The 23-year-old, together with Ivanovic and men's world number three Novak Djokovic, will be the major medal hopefuls for Serbia in the upcoming Games. But they all suffered defeats in the past week.

    Since claiming the French Open title in June, Ivanovic just played the Wimbledon and last week's Montreal Open, suffering early exit in both of the tournament.

    Djokovic finally snapped the three-match losing streak against Nadal and the Spaniard's 32-match unbeaten streak this season as well in the semifinals of the Cincinnati Masters event, although the 21-year-old lost to Scot Andy Murray in the final.

    Murray is seeing his best season and will travel to the upcoming Beijing Games with a renewed conviction in his game with his first career Masters title.

    Murray, who rose to a career-best sixth in the world on Monday, will compete in the men's singles and doubles with his borther Jamie in the Olympic Games.

Editor: Xinhuanet
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