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Thinking sweep U.S. women looking for medal sweep in Olympic tennis
The U.S. Olympic women's tennis team is looking for a sweep of singles and a gold in doubles at Sydney. The four-player squad announced Monday includes defending gold medalist Lindsay Davenport, Monica Seles and Venus Williams in singles, and Venus and her sister Serena in doubles. Coach Billie Jean King raised the possibility of a sweep. "We're going to go for it," she said. "Any one of our singles players -- Lindsay, Venus or Monica -- can win the gold medal, and we're looking for a gold medal in doubles." The Williams sisters will bring their brash flair to the Olympics for the first time. "We're the best doubles team America has because it's impossible to beat two of us, it really is," Venus said. "No matter how bad we play, one of us is going to be playing pretty good. It's going to be just really difficult." The sisters won doubles at the past three Grand Slam events they entered together -- the 1999 French Open, the 1999 U.S. Open and Wimbledon in July. Davenport and Venus Williams have won four of the past five Grand Slam singles titles. Williams won her first major singles title at Wimbledon this year. "Being in the Olympics is great," Williams said. "I have the opportunity to win two gold medals, which would be amazing." Davenport, a second-generation Olympian, hopes to become the first woman to repeat as gold medalist in singles. "I've always said since 1996 that I can't wait to go back to the Olympics," Davenport said. "We're sending an unbelievably strong team and should probably win a lot of medals in Sydney." U.S. women have won five of six gold medals since tennis returned to full-medal Olympic status in 1988 after a 64-year hiatus. The tennis event at Sydney will be held Sept. 19-28.
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