WTA to award ranking points in Athens

PARIS (Reuters) -- The 2004 Athens Olympics will award world ranking points to all tennis players in a bid to secure the cream of the crop for the Summer Games.

The move, announced at the French Open on Thursday, will mark the first time women players will earn ranking points at the Games.

Ranking points for men were awarded for the 2000 Olympic Tennis Event in Sydney.

The men's and women's world rankings will also be used as the entry criteria into the Olympics, the International Tennis Federation said.

"This is a significant step forward for the Olympic Tennis Event," ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti said.

"We want to thank Mark Miles of the ATP and Larry Scott of the WTA Tour and their boards for their support and their understanding of how important it is for the sport of tennis to be in the Olympic Games.

"Their decisions reward the men and women equally and will guarantee that as many top players as possible are able to represent their countries in Athens."

Olympic Games executive director Gilbert Felli said: "This new system is the result of a constructive cooperation between all parties involved since the introduction of tennis into the Olympic programme at the 1988 Games in Seoul and shows the determination to see top tennis players take part in the Olympic Games."

The Olympic Tennis Event will be played from Aug. 15-22, 2004 at the new Olympic Tennis Centre in Athens, Greece.

Tennis was a part of the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. After the 1924 Paris Games, tennis withdrew from the Olympics but returned as a demonstration event in 1984 and as a full medal sport in 1988.

 

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