==========================
BEIJING 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES (Beijing, China; hard (Decoturf II))
========================== http://www.itftennis.com/olympics/
Contents
--------

1. UK TV-alert
2. Opening ceremony
3. First-round draw
4. Daniela Hantuchová preview
5. Andrew's wishes
6. Women's Doubles: First-round draw
7. Order of play for Sunday

--------------
1. UK TV-alert
--------------

On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, the tennis will be played in two
sessions each day, the start-times as follows:
* 10:30 China-time = 02:30 GMT = 03:30 BST
* 17:00 China-time = 09:00 GMT = 10:00 BST

The following information applies to viewers with access to BBC 1,
BBC 2, and Freeview BBCi:

These days will be televised by the BBC as follows (start-times in
BST):
* Sunday 03:30 (Freeview 301), 11:00 (Freeview 302), 14:30 (BBC 2),
23:00 (Freeview 302)
* Monday 05:00 (Freeview Red button), 14:00 (BBC 1)
* Tuesday 03:30 (Freeview Red button), 12:00 (Freeview 301)

"Freeview Red button" refers to Freeview-channel 81, but timer-
recorders beware: if you just tune into it without pressing the Red
button, you'll get a screen saying "BBC Parliament has been
suspended... press RED" (I have written to the BBC to complain about
this).

From Wednesday to the second Sunday, the tennis will be played in one
session each day:
* 16:00 China-time = 08:00 GMT = 09:00 BST)

These days will be televised by the BBC as follows (start-times in
BST):
* Wednesday 09:00 (Freeview 302), 17:15 (BBC 2)
* Thursday 13:45 (BBC 1)
* Friday 09:30 (Freeview 301)
* Saturday/Sunday: information not yet available

I do not guarantee that the above information is up to date; it may
change dynamically and without notice - especially the BBCi schedule.
The following web-page gives details of the BBC's tennis-coverage a
day ahead (Freeview, satellite, cable and online):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/tennis/default.stm

Freeview-viewers should also keep up to date with the "Interactive TV
schedule" (press Red, then Select, then Blue, then select "BBC Sport
Listings" from the menu).

-------------------
2. Opening ceremony (The Bird's Nest, Friday 8th August)
-------------------

I watched the whole ceremony on BBC 1.

After a magnificent, atmospheric and selective portrayal of China's
history that lasted an hour, the opening ceremony got to the bit I
really love: the parade of athletes marching through the stadium,
country by country - I always have fun trying to spot all the tennis-
players.

The order of the countries was unpredictable to me: presumably
Chinese alphabetical order. Greece came out first (presumably because
it hosted the last Olympics), followed by the countries beginning
with 'T'...

The first tennis-player I spotted was Shahar Pe'er (Israel), and then
(in order of presentation):
* Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark was pretty sexy);
* Victoria Azarenka (Belarus);
* Leander Paes (India);
* Rafael Nadal (Spain) - they showed him at three different times in
the parade!;
* Argentina was very sexy, and I think I caught a brief glimpse of
Gisela Dulko;
* I loved Poland's cool red dresses, but couldn't spot Marta
Domachowska;
* Andy and Jamie Murray (I was annoyed that the BBC kept focusing on
Britain instead of showing Romania properly);
* Tsvetana Pironkova (Bulgaria);
* Liezel Huber (USA);
* Lucie Šafárová and Tomáš Berdych (Czechia) - spotting Lucie was the
highlight of the entire ceremony for me;
* Daniela Hantuchová (Slovakia) - sadly not close up, but I'm nearly
sure that the tallest Slovenka was her;
* Fernando González (Chile's flag-bearer!);
* Roger Federer (Switzerland's flag-bearer);
* Ana Ivanovic (Serbia) - sadly not close up, but I'm pretty sure I
saw her.

The athletes marched with paint on their soles, creating a massive
and increasingly visible rainbow of footprints on a canvas in the
middle of the arena, which was then transferred to the podium - "a
way of including every single athlete in the formal protocol."

-------------------
3. First-round draw
-------------------

The following draw is out of date: at the time of writing, I can't
find a version updated since the withdrawal of Tatiana Golovin (I've
been checking the official websites of the WTA, the ITF and the
Beijing Olympics for hours), so I don't even know whom Lucie Šafárová
plays now.


3.1 Top half (all four of my Eternal Fanship)
------------

* ANA IVANOVIC [1,DF] v Mariya Koryttseva (ajde Ana!)
* Lucie Šafárová [EF] v Tatiana Golovin [DF] (my loyalty is to Lucie)
* Anabel Medina Garrigues v Sybille Bammer
* Jill Craybas v PATTY SCHNYDER [13]

* VERA ZVONARËVA [9,EF] v Yan,Zi [S] (my loyalty is to Vera)
* Shahar Pe'er v Sorana Cîrstea (my loyalty is to Shahar)
* Akgul Amanmuradova v Francesca Schiavone
* Chan,Yung-Jan [WC] v AGNIESZKA RADWANSKA [8] (jia you Yung-Jan!)

* Olga Govortsova v SERENA WILLIAMS [4] (davai Olga!)
* Samantha Stosur v Sara Errani
* Peng,Shuai [S] v Carla Suárez Navarro (jia you Shuai!)
* Nicole Vaidišová [EF] v ALIZÉ CORNET [15] (my loyalty is to Nicole)

* DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [10,EF] v Ai Sugiyama (PODME DANIELA!!)
* Caroline Wozniacki v Selima Sfar [WC] (kom sĺ Caroline!)
* Tamarine Tanasugarn [WC] v Sofia Arvidsson
* ELENA DEMENTIEVA [5] v Kateryna Bondarenko (davai Elena!)


3.2 Bottom half
---------------

* Timea Bacsinszky v VENUS WILLIAMS [7] (hopp Timea!)
* Sania Mirza [DF] v Iveta Benešová (my loyalty is to Sania)
* Gisela Dulko [DF] v Casey Dell'Acqua (ˇvamos Gisela!)
* Tatiana Perebiynis v VICTORIA AZARENKA [12] (my Reason says
Victoria, but my Passion says Tatiana)

* FLAVIA PENNETTA [14,DF] v Kaia Kanepi (forza Flavia!)
* Eleni Daniilidou v Virginie Razzano
* Marina Erakovic v Ayumi Morita [WC,S] (my loyalty is to Marina)
* Li,Na v SVETLANA KUZNETSOVA [3] (jia you Na!)

* Mara Santangelo v DINARA SAFINA [6] (forza Mara!)
* Alicia Molik [WC] v María-José Martínez Sánchez (go Alicia!)
* Klára Zakopalová v Nuria Llagostera Vives [WC] (pojdme Klára!)
* Zheng,Jie v ÁGNES SZÁVAY [11] (jia you Jie!)

* DOMINIKA CIBULKOVÁ [16] v Pauline Parmentier (podme Domi!)
* Tsvetana Pironkova [DF] v Marta Domachowska (my loyalty is to
Tsvetana)
* Alyona Bondarenko v Milagros Sequera (davai Alyona!)
* Cara Black [WC] v JELENA JANKOVIC [2] (go Cara!)

-----------------------------
4. Daniela Hantuchová preview
-----------------------------

It's been Daniela's dream to play in the Olympics ever since she was
a little girl watching Miloslav Mecír winning the Gold Medal for
men's singles at Seoul 1988, but the timing is terrible, as she has
yet to recover the form she had before the stress-fracture in her
right heel that kept her off the Tour from April to Wimbledon.

Daniela's 7-6 6-4 win over Sara Errani in her comeback-match at
Wimbledon was commendable, but she didn't look fully fit in the third
set of her 6-3 4-6 6-1 second-round loss to Alisa Kleybanova - and
that was on grass: the most forgiving surface there is.

Daniela has struggled even more on the hard courts, losing 6-3 6-1 to
Ai Sugiyama at Stanford, and 6-2 6-4 to Olga Govortsova at Los
Angeles, extending her losing-streak to 3 matches.

So it's most unfortunate that she has to play Sugiyama again in the
first round here, even if she'll have the crowd on her side.

Daniela is only 3:6 head-to-head against Sugiyama, even though
Daniela was the higher-ranked player in 6 of those meetings. It's
hard to play your regular doubles-partner (as Sugiyama was a few
years ago), and often the lower-ranked partner has an advantage
because she has inside information, not to mention the emotional
aspect of seeing your partner on the other side of the net.

Daniela's wins over Sugiyama came at Eastbourne 2004 (6-1 7-6),
Zürich 2005 (1-6 7-5 6-4) and Zürich 2006 (7-6 6-2). They didn't play
each other in 2007 (Daniela's best year), but Sugiyama already beat
Daniela at Miami this year (6-4 6-7 7-5) before the aforementioned
Stanford-drubbing.

There's no one I'd like to see win the Gold Medal here more than
Daniela, but the timing is terrible, the draw is very tough, and I
would hate to put a number on Daniela's chances. Even if she gets
past Sugiyama, she could have to play Caroline Wozniacki, Elena
Dementieva and Serena Williams back to back on consecutive days.


4.1 Daniela's diary
-------------------

My last days before the Olympics (2008-08-01)
http://www.dhantuchova.com/diary.html?id=5
>>>
Hi guys!

Last week i have visited the nike base in Portland which was
incredible experience..the whole place is absolutely fantastic it
makes you understand why nike is the biggest and best sport company
in the world..all the people i had oportunity to meet were very
exciting and there is incredible amount of engery and enviroment to
work in,that you can just feel it full of energy and new ideas that
are going to come out any second..i have to say it makes me very
proud to be representing nike as an athlete and to be a part of such
a great company...

After i had a plane to catch which was very very tight as we had fly
back to LA and from there to London..we had only few minutes to make
the connection so at least i got my work out for the day done,
running from one terminal to another.

This week im in Barcelona preparing in the Sanchez Casal for the
upcoming olympics which is going to be such an in incredible
experience..it is so hot here in barcelona and full fo tourists
during this time of the year so it is very busy right now and aslo in
the academy there are lot of kids that come here just for the summer
holidays to improve their tennis which is nice to see that they like
to do my sport also during holidays..talking about olympics i cant
wait to be there as just beeing a part of it and represent my country
is already going to be a big honour...

I hope you guys will all support me as much as you can and hope you
will enjoy watching the whole thing on tv...i hope i will get a
chance to see some sports as well and support my country men and
women in their sports but tennis will come first of course for me as
always..

Have a great day and i will speak to you all soon :-)

D
<<<

------------------
5. Andrew's wishes
------------------

DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [10,EF]:
1r + Ai Sugiyama
2r + Caroline Wozniacki
3r + ELENA DEMENTIEVA [5]
qf + Nicole Vaidišová [EF]
sf + VERA ZVONARËVA [9,EF]
_f + Sania Mirza [DF]

According to a poll at www.dhantuchova.com, 46% of Daniela-fans
believe she's going to win the Gold medal (the dream), while 39%
believe she's not going to win a medal at all (the harsh reality).

------------------------------------
6. Women's Doubles: First-round draw
------------------------------------

* Daniela Hantuchová [EF]/Janette Husárová v (YAN,ZI [S]/ZHENG,JIE)[8]

---------------------------
7. Order of play for Sunday
---------------------------

All matches will be played at the Olympic Green Tennis Center (sic),
which looks absolutely magnificent in the photos I've seen!

Sunday's schedule is a mixture of matches from both halves of the
draw. The first round will be completed on Monday, followed by a
round a day for the Women's Singles (with the finals on Saturday).

The weather doesn't look too good for the first round: rain,
temperatures up to 31°C and humidity at 90%. Daniela said earlier
this week: "This is the hottest weather I think I've ever
experienced."

All start-times are given in China-time, which is 8 hours ahead of
GMT and 7 hours ahead of BST (e.g. 10:30 China-time = 02:30 GMT =
03:30 BST).

Show Court 2
(10:30) MS 1r: Nikolay Davydenko v Ernests Gulbis
(12:30) WS 1r: DANIELA HANTUCHOVÁ [10,EF] v Ai Sugiyama
(17:00) WS 1r: Chan,Yung-Jan [WC] v AGNIESZKA RADWANSKA [8]
(19:00) WD 1r: Nicole Vaidišová [EF]/Iveta Benešová
v (SERENA WILLIAMS/VENUS WILLIAMS)[2]
(21:00) MD 1r <snip>

The full order of play is at:
http://www.itftennis.com/olympics/event/scheduleday1.asp

--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/tennis/hantu/