A Short Guide to 2012 Olympic Tennis

2012 Olympic Tennis at Wimbledon

The 2012 London Olympics are underway and the tennis competition begins on Saturday, July 28 at Wimbledon.

Here are five essential facts and a few corresponding links to help you make the most out of the time you spend watching Olympic tennis.

(1) Who's playing? All the top-ranked men and women are playing, with the exception of Rafael Nadal who was forced to withdraw due to injury. Fresh from their Wimbledon wins, Roger Federer and Serena Williams are of course the favorites. Complete draws for the men's and women's tennis competitions were announced on Thursday. You can find draws for singles and doubles here, and you can see all the players listed by country here.

(2) Where and when can you watch Olympic tennis? The complete TV coverage schedule for the U.S. is here. In a nutshell, starting Saturday July 28 Bravo will broadcast 56 hours of tennis coverage from the first round through to the semi-final matches on Friday. Finals matches the weekend of August 4-5 move to various other NBC networks.

(3) Which tennis players will be flag bearers for their countries? In 2012, a total of eight tennis players have been chosen to carry their nation's flag during Friday night's opening ceremony (by contrast, in 2008 only Federer - Switzerland and Fernando Gonzalez - Chile were flag bearers). Here are the eight tennis players who will proudly carry flags in London.

1. Marcos Baghdatis - Cyprus (CYP)
2. Novak Djokovic - Serbia (SRB)
3. Max Mirnyi - Belarus (BLR)
4. Agnieszka Radwanska - Poland (POL)
5. Maria Sharapova - Russia (RUS)
6. Horia Tecau - Romania (ROM)
7. Stephanie Vogt - Liechtenstein (LIE)
8. Stanislas Wawrinka - Switzerland (SUI)

Bonus Trivia - Why isn't Federer carrying the flag again for Switzerland? Federer carried the Swiss flag at the Olympics in 2004 (Athens) and 2008 (Beijing). He was offered the opportunity again this year, but declined so that his doubles partner Stan Wawrinka could have the honor.

(4) Who were the 2008 medal winners in tennis?

• Rafael Nadal won the men's singles gold medal and Elena Dementieva won the women's singles gold.
• Federer/Wawrinka won men's doubles and the Williams sisters won women's doubles. 

The complete list of 2008 tennis medalists is here.

(5) Of the six players who earned Gold/Silver/Bronze medals in singles in 2008, how many are playing in 2012? Novak Djokovic (2008-Silver) and Vera Zvonareva (2008-Bronze) are the only 2008 singles medalists returning to the Olympics this year. The other four players are either injured (Rafael Nadal), retired (Elena Dementieva, Fernando Gonzalez), or didn't qualify (Dinara Safina).

You can find lots more info including live/daily scores, photos, and a link to the ITF Olympic Tennis Mobile App here.

Enjoy the 2012 Olympic Games!