Olympics and Chile
Held from August 15 to August 22 in Athens, Greece, it consisted of four events; men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, and women's doubles. The standard 5th event, mixed doubles, was not part of these games. There were 170 participants (87 men and 83 women) from 52 countries. The events were held at the Athens Olympic Tennis Centre at the Athens Olympic Sports Complex. The surface was hardcourt, specifically DecoTurf, the same surface as used at the US Open in Flushing Meadow, New York. The Centre had 16 courts built specifically for the 2004 Olympics, with construction finished just before the opening of the Athens Olympics. There was a main court seating 6,000 fans for the Olympics, two show courts with seating for 3,200 seats during the Olympics, and 16 side courts with limited seating. [1]
Chile won the most medals (three), two of which were gold, led by Nicolás Massú, who won the men's singles, and partnered by Fernando González, also helped Chile take gold in the doubles. [2] [3] [4]
Russian breakthrough
The year 2004 was well known for the breakthrough of Russian players into the WTA Tour. [5]
At the French Open, Anastasia Myskina became the first woman from Russia to win a Grand Slam singles title, by defeating compatriot Elena Dementieva in the final, 6–1, 6–2. [6] A mere four weeks later, at Wimbledon, 17–year-old Maria Sharapova became the nation's second female Grand Slam winner, defeating two-time champion Serena Williams in the final, 6–1, 6–4, and becoming the third-youngest woman (after Lottie Dod and Martina Hingis) to win Wimbledon. [7] Finally, at the US Open, Svetlana Kuznetsova became the nation's third consecutive winner of a Grand Slam singles title, defeating Dementieva in the final, 6–3, 7–5. [8]
Other Russian players also made an impact on the WTA Tour that year. Nadia Petrova cracked the WTA's Top 10 for the first time, and also achieved her biggest result that year, defeating defending US Open champion Justine Henin-Hardenne in the fourth round, before losing to Kuznetsova in the quarter-finals. [9] Vera Zvonareva also continued to improve on the Tour before injuries briefly derailed her career the following year.
The conclusion of the season culminated in Sharapova winning the 2004 WTA Tour Championships by repeating her Wimbledon victory over Serena Williams in the final, 4–6, 6–2, 6–4, after coming from 0–4 down in the final set. [10]
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