Having not played for the Swiss Federation Cup team the past two years, Martina Hingis was ineligible to play in the Olympics. So distraught at the idea of missing the Games, the top-ranked player in the world exclaimed:

"There are other, more important, things for me to do."

Although most of rest of the tennis world does not share Hingis' low opinion of the Olympics, recent withdrawals could leave the draw in Sydney as watered down as recent Games.

At the time teams were named, the field seemed almost as strong as a Grand Slam event. The men had 17 of the top 20 ranked players in the world. Pete Sampras and Cedric Pioline of France were the only big names who didn't enter. But defending Olympic champion Andre Agassi was likely to withdraw to spend time with his ailing mother and sister, top-ranked Gustavo Kuerten left Brazil's team in a dispute over uniform sponsorship and Russia's seventh-ranked Yevgeny Kafelnikov seemed on the brink of pulling out after a poor U.S. Open performance.

The women's field has 12 of the top 20 players in attendance, but that is somewhat due to circumstances. Only three players from any one country are allowed to qualify. Since the United States has six players in the top 20 and France has five, that immediately eliminated five of the world's top 20 players.

Lindsay Davenport is back to defend her 1996 Olympic title. No tennis player has won the Olympics back-to-back. Not when tennis was on the program from 1896-1924 and not since it returned to the Games in 1988.

With Venus Williams and Monica Seles joining Davenport, a U.S. sweep of medals on the women's side would not be a shock.

DID YOU KNOW?

Billie Jean King decided to field the best team.

Which means she may have made the wrong choice.

The women's coach had no say in the U.S. qualifiers for singles -- Venus Williams, Lindsay Davenport and Monica Seles were chosen via rankings.

King was, however, in charge of choosing a doubles player. Former University of Florida player Lisa Raymond has specialized in doubles the last two years, in part with an eye toward making the Olympics. She is the No. 1 ranked doubles player in the world yet King chose Serena Williams for the doubles team.

Raymond challenged the decision and an arbitrator turned down her appeal.

"You don't fight your butt off to become the No. 1 doubles player in the world and don't get chosen to go to the Olympic Games," Raymond said. "How's that not good enough? You tell me."

King did have a sound rationale for her decision. The Williams sisters won the U.S. Open doubles title in 1999 and Wimbledon in 2000. When together, they may be the best doubles team in the world.

The problem, however, is they rarely play doubles. Making the whole thing even more unseemly is that Venus Williams seemed to suggest this summer that she would pull out of the Olympics if her sister was not named to the team.

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