Tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics

In the women's singles tournament, Serena Williams defeated Maria Sharapova while losing only one game in the final for the gold medal and her sixth major event win at Wimbledon, having won the ladies' singles tournament at The Championships less than three weeks earlier as well as in 2002, 2003, 2009 and 2010. She also defended her women's doubles title alongside her sister Venus Williams, who had won singles gold in Sydney in 2000. With her singles gold, she became the second female player to win a career singles Golden Slam—Olympic gold in addition to the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, with the first being Steffi Graf in 1988 after she won all five events that year (a feat not yet matched by another player, male or female.) Williams also became the first player in history, male or female, to win the career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles (the Williams sisters had already completed their career doubles Golden Slam at the 2001 Australian Open, joining Pam Shriver in Seoul in 1988 and Gigi Fernández at the 1993 Australian Open. However, Serena and Venus joined Gigi Fernández as the only three women to have completed the career doubles Golden Slam twice.)^[4] Furthermore, the Williams sisters also became the first four-time gold medalists in Olympic tennis history.

In the men's singles tournament final, Andy Murray beat Roger Federer in straight sets in front of a home crowd to avenge his four-set loss against Federer exactly four weeks earlier on Centre Court in the Wimbledon gentlemen's singles final. In doing so, he denied Federer the chance to become the third man to win a singles Career Golden Slam after Nadal at the 2010 US Open and Andre Agassi at the 1999 French Open. He also became the first British man to win singles tennis gold since Josiah Ritchie in 1908 (also at Wimbledon) and the first to win a major event at Wimbledon since Fred Perry won The Championships in 1936. Based on his gold medal as well as his achievements over the following four years, including a US Open championship, two Wimbledon championships and a Davis Cup, Team GB chose him as their flagbearer for the opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, where he won a second consecutive gold medal.

Meanwhile, the Bryan brothers (Mike and Bob) took the men's doubles gold for the United States and themselves completed a Career Golden Slam, joining the Australian "Woodies" (Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, who completed their set at the 2000 French Open) and Canada's Daniel Nestor at Wimbledon in 2009. Also, the Belarusian top seeds of Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi took the mixed doubles gold after overcoming Murray and Laura Robson mere hours after Murray had defeated Federer.

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's singles	Andy Murray   Great Britain	Roger Federer   Switzerland	Juan Martín del Potro   Argentina
Men's doubles	United States (USA) Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	France (FRA) Michaël Llodra Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	France (FRA) Julien Benneteau Richard Gasquet
Women's singles	Serena Williams   United States	Maria Sharapova   Russia	Victoria Azarenka   Belarus
Women's doubles	United States (USA) Serena Williams Venus Williams	Czech Republic (CZE) Andrea Hlaváčková Lucie Hradecká	Russia (RUS) Maria Kirilenko Nadia Petrova
Mixed doubles	Belarus (BLR) Victoria Azarenka Max Mirnyi	Great Britain (GBR) Laura Robson Andy Murray	United States (USA) Lisa Raymond Mike Bryan

  *   Host nation (Great Britain)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	3	0	1	4
2	Great Britain (GBR)*	1	1	0	2
3	Belarus (BLR)	1	0	1	2
4	France (FRA)	0	1	1	2
	Russia (RUS)	0	1	1	2
6	Czech Republic (CZE)	0	1	0	1
	Switzerland (SUI)	0	1	0	1
8	Argentina (ARG)	0	0	1	1
Totals (8 entries)		5	5	5	15

 

The 2012 Olympic tournament was the fourteenth edition of tennis at the Olympics (excluding the two Olympics, 1968 and 1984, when tennis was a demonstration event), and the seventh since 1988, when tennis was officially brought back into the Olympic Games. Mixed doubles was an official Olympic event for the first time since 1924, when Hazel Wightman and Richard Williams of the United States won the gold medal, and was played for the first time since it was played as a demonstration event in 1968.^[5][6]

The 2012 tournaments were played on grass courts at the All England Club, three weeks after the end of the 2012 edition of The Championships. Sessions ran from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. as established by the All England Club policy. However, the All England Club along with other organizers not only allowed but encouraged the players to wear their national colours as opposed to predominantly white clothes in accordance with typical Wimbledon tradition, and the normally all-green grounds were also decked out in purple and multi-coloured London 2012 Olympic branding.

Twelve courts were used for the matches including Centre Court, No.1 and No.2. No.3 Court was used for warm ups.^[7] The Olympic tennis events were organised jointly by the ITF, the IOC and the All England Club. Both the men's and women's singles and doubles events counted as a part of the 2012 ATP World Tour and the 2012 WTA Tour.^[8]

The points distribution for the Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women's Tennis Association tours, concerning only singles competition on the 2012 Olympic Games, is listed below.^[9][10] These points can be added to a player's world ranking for the 2012 season.

For the singles competitions, the top 56 players in the world rankings on 11 June 2012 of the WTA and ATP tours qualified for the Olympics. However, entry was limited to four players from a country. This means that players who were ranked in the top 56 but are from countries with four higher-ranked players already participating did not qualify, and players who were ranked outside of the top 56 but are from countries with fewer than four players already participating qualified. A player could only participate if he or she had made him- or herself available to be drafted to represent the player's country in Davis Cup or Fed Cup for two of the following years: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, with one of the years being either 2011 or 2012.^[11] Of the other eight wildcard slots, six of the slots were determined by the ITF's Olympic Committee, taking into account ranking and spread of nations represented, while the final two slots were awarded by the IOC to players from small nations.

In the doubles competitions, twenty four teams automatically qualified as per the rankings on 11 June 2012, subject to a maximum of two teams per nation. Players in the top ten of the doubles rankings could reserve a place, provided they had a partner to compete with. The remaining eight teams were decided by the ITF's Olympic Committee. Entries for the mixed doubles were confirmed at the Games.^[12][13] The Tripartite Commission later decided only to give places in the women's singles leaving eight wildcards to be chosen by the ITF Olympic Committee for the men's singles competition.^[14]

The tennis competition at the Olympic Games consists of a single elimination tournament. The size of the singles draw, 64, means that there are six rounds of competition in total,^[15] with five in the doubles owing to its smaller draw size of 32, and 4 for mixed with its draw size only being 16.^[16] Players reaching the semifinal are assured of an opportunity to compete for a medal, as the two losing parties in each semifinals contest a bronze medal match.

In a further change from normal Wimbledon practice, the matches followed the Olympic format – all matches were three-set matches except for the men's singles final, which would be a five-set match. The tie break operated in every set except the fifth set in the men's singles final and the third set in the other matches (except mixed doubles), when an advantage set was played. In the mixed doubles the third set was played as a match tie-break (10 points).

The following players received an ITF Invitation:^[17]

• Samantha Stosur / Lleyton Hewitt
    Australia
• Laura Robson / Andy Murray
    Great Britain
• Elena Vesnina / Mikhail Youzhny
    Russia
• Sofia Arvidsson / Robert Lindstedt
    Sweden

Seedings were based on the rankings as of 23 July 2012.

Seed	Rank	Player	Status
1	1	Roger Federer   Switzerland	Finals lost to Andy Murray   Great Britain [3]
2	2	Novak Djokovic   Serbia	Semifinals lost to Andy Murray   Great Britain [3] Bronze medal lost to Juan Martín del Potro   Argentina [8]
3	4	Andy Murray   Great Britain	Finals defeated Roger Federer   Switzerland [1]
4	5	David Ferrer   Spain	Third round lost to Kei Nishikori   Japan [15]
5	6	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga   France	Quarterfinals lost to Novak Djokovic   Serbia [2]
6	7	Tomáš Berdych   Czech Republic	First round lost to Steve Darcis   Belgium
7	8	Janko Tipsarević   Serbia	Third round lost to John Isner   United States [10]
8	9	Juan Martín del Potro   Argentina	Semifinals lost to Roger Federer   Switzerland [1] Bronze medal defeated Novak Djokovic   Serbia [2]
9	10	Juan Mónaco   Argentina	Second round lost to Feliciano López   Spain
10	11	John Isner   United States	Quarterfinals lost to Roger Federer   Switzerland [1]
11	12	Nicolás Almagro   Spain	Quarterfinals lost to Andy Murray   Great Britain
12	14	Gilles Simon   France	Third round lost to Juan Martín del Potro   Argentina
13	15	Marin Čilić   Croatia	Second round lost to Lleyton Hewitt   Australia
14	16	Fernando Verdasco   Spain	First round lost to Denis Istomin   Uzbekistan
15	18	Kei Nishikori   Japan	Quarterfinals lost to Juan Martín del Potro   Argentina [8]
16	21	Richard Gasquet   France	Second round lost to Marcos Baghdatis   Cyprus

Rank	Player	Points	Points defending	Points Won	New points	Withdrew due to
3	Rafael Nadal	8,905	0	0	8,905	Knee tendinitis[19]
20	Gaël Monfils	1,625	300	0	1,325	Knee injury

Seed	Rank	Player	Status
1	1	Victoria Azarenka   Belarus	Semifinals lost to Serena Williams   United States [4] Bronze medal defeated Maria Kirilenko   Russia [14]
2	2	Agnieszka Radwańska   Poland	First round lost to Julia Görges   Germany
3	3	Maria Sharapova   Russia	Finals lost to Serena Williams   United States [4]
4	4	Serena Williams   United States	Finals defeated Maria Sharapova   Russia [3]
5	5	Samantha Stosur   Australia	First round lost to Carla Suárez Navarro   Spain
6	6	Petra Kvitová   Czech Republic	Quarterfinals lost to Maria Kirilenko   Russia [14]
7	7	Angelique Kerber   Germany	Quarterfinals lost to Victoria Azarenka   Belarus [1]
8	8	Caroline Wozniacki   Denmark	Quarterfinals lost to Serena Williams   United States [4]
9	9	Sara Errani   Italy	First round lost to Venus Williams   United States
10	11	Li Na   China	First round lost to Daniela Hantuchová   Slovakia
11	12	Ana Ivanovic   Serbia	Third round lost to Kim Clijsters   Belgium
12	13	Dominika Cibulková   Slovakia	First round lost to Tsvetana Pironkova   Bulgaria
13	14	Vera Zvonareva   Russia	Third round lost to Serena Williams   United States [4]
14	15	Maria Kirilenko   Russia	Semifinal lost to Maria Sharapova   Russia [3] Bronze medal lost to Victoria Azarenka   Belarus [1]
15	17	Sabine Lisicki   Germany	Third round lost to Maria Sharapova   Russia [3]
16	19	Nadia Petrova   Russia	Third round lost to Victoria Azarenka   Belarus [1]

Rank	Player	Points	Points defending	Points Won	New points	Withdrew due to
16	Kaia Kanepi	2,514	0	0	2,514	Heel injury
18	Andrea Petkovic	2,260	200	0	2,060	Ankle injury

  Media related to Tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics at Wikimedia Commons

• Tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics. London2012.com. at the UK Government Web Archive (archived 28 February 2013)
• Official results book – Tennis. London2012.com. at the Wayback Machine (archived 11 May 2013)
• Tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics at SR/Olympics (archived)