Rio 2016 venue: Olympic Tennis Center – Olympic Park (Barra Zone)
Competition dates: Aug. 6-14
Medal events: 5 (men’s and women’s singles and doubles, mixed doubles)
Olympic introduction: 1896 (Athens, Greece)


Preview
The United States – the leader in Olympic tennis medals since the sport was reinstated as an Olympic medal 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.

Team USA’s Serena and Venus Williams return to the Olympic stage as the winningest doubles tennis team in Olympic history. The Williams sisters will look to match the Olympic record for overall tennis medals (5) by Kitty McKane of Great Britain in Rio. The sisters are undefeated as a doubles team at the Olympic Games with a perfect 15-0 record (3 gold medals, 2000, 2008, and 2012). The duo enters the Rio Games after having just won the women’s double title at Wimbledon, where Serena also claimed the women’s singles title to tie Steffi Graf for the most Grand Slam titles in the Open Era with 22. While both sisters will be chasing history in the all-time medal chart, Venus has already added to her historic career by qualifying for her fifth Olympic Team. She joins Roger Federer (Switzerland) as the only five-time Olympians in tennis, and at age 36, becomes the second-oldest Olympic singles player since tennis returned to the Olympics in 1988 following a 64-year hiatus.

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 seating 5,000 and 3,000. All outside courts will seat 250. 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 closest nations all have two: Russia, Germany/West Germany, Switzerland and Chile. 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. 


Athletes To Watch

Madison Keys 
Keys is one of the Team USA’s most promising young players and will be making her Olympic debut. She peaked at No. 9 in the world rankings on June 27, 2016. She won her second WTA title earlier this year in June on the grass in Birmingham, Great Britain, and won her first WTA title in 2014 at the grass-court event in Eastbourne, Great Britain. She reached her first Grand Slam semifinal at the 2015 Australian Open, where she defeated Venus Williams in the quarterfinals. That same year, she reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 2015.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands
Mattek-Sands, known for her eccentric fashion, found much success in doubles in the last four years and will be making her Olympic debut. Bethanie won back-to-back WTA doubles titles in 2016, capturing wins at Indian Wells, California, in March with partner CoCo Vandeweghe and one week later in Miami with Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic. In 2015, she claimed her first career Grand Slam women’s doubles titles by winning the Australian Open and French Open, while also capturing the mixed doubles title at 2015 French Open with fellow American Mike Bryan. She peaked at No. 3 in the world in doubles in August 2015.

Jack Sock 
A young American on the rise, Sock will be competing at his first Olympic Games after making his debut for the U.S. Davis Cup Team in 2015, in which he won both of his singles matches against Uzbekistan. Sock had a breakout year in 2015, winning his first career ATP singles title at the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston and breaking into the top 26. He peaked at No. 22 in the world in January. He also thrives in doubles, winning the 2014 Wimbledon doubles title, and reaching the doubles quarterfinals of the 2015 French Open and 2016 Australian Open. He peaked at a career-high No. 6 in the individual doubles rankings in May 2015.

Serena Williams
A three-time gold medalist in doubles with sister Venus Williams (2000, 2008, 2012), world No. 1 Serena Williams captured her first-ever singles gold medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. With Venus, Williams has won the most gold medals in tennis of any American (4). She was named Sports Illustrated’s 2015 Sportsperson of the Year after a dominant stretch on the tennis tour, completing her second career “Serena Slam” by winning the US Open (2014), Australian Open (2015), French Open (2015) and Wimbledon (2015) consecutively. Williams holds 22 Grand Slam titles after winning Wimbledon last month (her seventh Wimbledon title). With the victory, she tied Steffi Graf for the most Grand Slam titles in the Open Era. In 2016, she has made it to the final in five of the six tournaments she has played, winning two titles – Wimbledon and Rome. She finished runner-up at the Australian Open, Indian Wells and the French Open this year. She will be competing in singles and in doubles with her sister, Venus, in Rio after the pair took the Wimbledon doubles title this summer. 

Venus Williams
With sister Serena Williams, Venus Williams has won the most gold medals in tennis of any American with four (singles and doubles in 2000, doubles in 2008, and doubles in 2012). The former world No. 1 will be the first American to compete in five Olympic tennis competitions. She remains a strong force in tennis in 2016, climbing to No. 6 in the world rankings. She won another Grand Slam title in doubles at Wimbledon last month with Serena and captured one WTA title in 2016 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Last year, she won three WTA titles and had her first top-10 season since 2010. In Rio, at age 36, she will be the second-oldest Olympic singles player since tennis returned to the Olympics in 1988 following a 64-year hiatus. 


Storylines

  • The U.S. team will feature nine first-time Olympians. On the women’s team: Madison Keys, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Sloane Stephens and CoCo Vandeweghe; on the men’s team: Brian Baker, Denis Kudla, Steve Johnson, Rajeev Ram and Jack Sock.
  • The U.S. women’s team is expected to be extremely competitive by featuring two reigning Olympic gold medalists. In singles, all four American women are ranked in the WTA Tour Top 25 in the world, including world No. 1 and reigning Olympic singles gold medalist Serena Williams, No. 6 Venus Williams, No. 12 Madison Keys and No. 23 Sloane Stephens. The U.S. will send two doubles teams into the Games. The first will feature the reigning Olympic doubles gold medal team of Serena and Venus Williams and the second team will see doubles specialist Bethanie Mattek-Sands partner with CoCo Vandeweghe (this team won the Indian Wells tournament earlier this year). Of those six players, three are under age 25.
  • The four men in the men’s singles competition will all be making their Olympic debuts: Brian Baker, Denis Kudla, Steve Johnson and Jack Sock. The U.S. men’s doubles teams will be Baker and Ram, and Johnson and Sock.
  • The U.S. will later announce its two teams in mixed doubles – which will be contested at the Olympics for the second time since tennis returned to the Games in 1988 – comprised from among the 12 players already named, once all players are in Rio.
  • After a successful campaign at the London 2012 Games that saw the U.S. Olympic Tennis Team win gold in three of five events, the U.S. looks ahead to the 2016 Games with hopes of continued success. Both U.S. Olympic champions from 2012 will be looking to once again claim gold at the Games: Serena Williams, the women’s singles champion, who also won her third Olympic doubles gold with sister Venus Williams.
  • Serena and Venus are undefeated as a doubles team at the Olympic Games with a perfect 15-0 record (3 gold medals, 2000, 2008, and 2012).
  • Serena has won an all-time record 12 Grand Slam singles titles on a hard court, which will be the surface in Rio.
  • Brian Baker, 31, used a protected ranking to compete at the Olympics this year. He has played on the professional tennis circuit since 2001 and has had numerous successes, but also numerous injuries. Baker underwent 11 surgeries from 1999-2014, including operations on both knees and hips, as well as on his back and right elbow. During his injury absence, Baker studied and coached tennis for four years at Belmont University. In 2012, Baker reached his first-ever ATP final in Nice, France, and advanced to the fourth round of Wimbledon to peak at No. 52 in the world in October 2012. He is ranked No. 156 in the world and used a protected ranking to make the Olympic team.