Hawk Eye: Olympic Games - Preview & Draw

Hi everyone,

It's finally time for the Olympic Games! I'm so glad to be home and have absolutely nothing to do, so I don't have to miss a second.

Four years ago all the medals went to Russian players: gold for Dementieva (she is retired already), silver for Safina and bronze for Zvonareva. Only Zvonareva has the chance to prolong her Olympic title but there are a lot of contenders!

We'll look at the draw first, because the Olympian rules make it much more interesting than usual. The seeded players are seperated from each other like in any other tournament (so they will meet in later stages), but fellow country women are also seperated! For example the two Belgian competitors (Wickmayer and Clijsters) can only meet in the final. The four American contenders are in other quarters of the draw.

To check out the draw: click here

So who has to play in the same quarters:

- Upper draw = Azarenka, Petrova, Errani, Venus Williams and Kerber

- Upper middle draw = Serena Williams, Jankovic, Schiavone, Zvonareva, Li, Wozniacki

- Down middle draw = Stosur, Clijsters, Ivanovic, Lisicki, Sharapova

- Down draw = Kvitova, Cibulkova, Goerges, Radwanska

My prediction of the medals: gold for Serena Williams, silver for Sharapova and bronze for Azarenka. Don't shoot me if it's completely different, I myself would kill for a medal for Clijsters! Photo of Serena when winning Wimbledon shows her in a gold dress, is she confident or what?

Obviously there are a lot of interesting matches to come, so I'll just sum up for the first round:

- Venus Williams vs. Sara Errani

- Serena Williams vs. Jelena Jankovic (both William sisters get a tough opponent!)

- Mona Barthel vs. Urszula Radwanska (two coming women mash-up)

- Li vs. Hantuchova

- Clijsters vs. Vinci

- McHale vs. Ivanovic (a bit of a shame to be losing one of them in the first round already!)

- Pironkova vs. Cibulkova (a top player on grass against the winner at Carlsbad recently)

- Radwanska vs. Goerges (quite tough for the number two, will be a good wam-up to say the least!)

And who are we missing from the top 20? Bartoli (10) was excluded due to an argument with her French committee. Kaia Kanepi (16) would have been a real addition for the Estonian team, but she's sidelined due to a heel injury. Also Petkovic can't compete at this year's Olympic Games, still with her ankle injury. But that doesn't mean she's not enjoying herself by almost falling in the bushes when getting shit on by a bird: