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*Roddick, Williams sisters gunning for Olympic tennis gold*
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By Aaron Rennie 
SportsTicker Staff Writer

BRISTOL, Connecticut (Ticker) - Andy Roddick hopes his game does
not cool off in the Greek heat when he leads the U.S. men's
Olympic tennis team to Athens later this month.

Roddick, who also is preparing to defend his U.S. Open title,
enters the Olympics having played his best tennis all year.

The 21-year-old Roddick, the second-ranked player in the world,
has won 25 of his last 28 matches, losing only to world No. 1
Roger Federer of Switzerland in the final at Wimbledon and
Toronto before Saturday's setback to fellow American Andre
Agassi.

The Olympics, like the U.S. Open and its warm-up events, will be
contested on hard courts.

Roddick is one of four Americans entered in the singles draw,
joining Taylor Dent, Mardy Fish and Vincent Spadea.

"If I could win one tournament this year, it would be that one,"
Roddick said in an ESPN.com interview in April.  "If I got a
medal, I'd want the gold.  It's one thing to be a finalist in a
tournament, knowing that you can go back to it the next year,
but the Olympics is once every four years.

"The U.S. Open was my ultimate dream in tennis ... that was
almost the pinnacle for me.  That being said, if you said, 'OK,
pick one tournament that you'd be victorious in this year,' I'd
probably say the Olympics."

Roddick and Fish will play together in doubles, but more likely
to medal are American twins Bob and Mike Bryant, who have won
five tournaments and lead the ATP Tour in doubles points this
year.

Arguably the Bryants' biggest competition will come from Michael
Llodra and Fabrice Santoro of France, who beat them in the
Australian Open final.  Also tough should be French Open champs
Xavier Malisse and Olivier Rochus of Belgium, reunited Indians
Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes, Swedes Jonas Bjorkman and
Joachim Johansson, Czechs Martin Damm and Cyril Suk and
Zimbabwe's Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyett.

Despite having a 23-match winning streak snapped by unheralded
Slovakian Dominik Hrbaty at Cincinnati, Federer is the favorite
to win the singles gold.  He has won eight tournaments this year
and his last 10 finals, including this year's Australian Open
and Wimbledon.

Other medal threats in the 64-man field are Carlos Moya of
Spain, Marat Safin of Russia, Tim Henman of Britain, Sebastien
Grosjean of France and Tommy Haas and Nicolas Kiefer of Germany.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia beat Haas in the final to win the
gold in Sydney four years ago.

On the women's side, American Venus Williams will have a
difficult time repeating her success of Sydney, when she became
the first American since Helen Mills in 1924 to win both singles
and doubles.

Williams beat Russian Elena Dementieva to win the gold in
singles, then teamed with sister Serena to win the doubles.

But both Williams sisters have struggled this year with their
form and overcoming injuries.  Venus has won just two titles in
2004 and has failed to progress beyond the quarterfinals of a
Grand Slam, while Serena has won just one title and was shocked
in the Wimbledon final by Russian Maria Sharapova.

Both sisters will play singles for the U.S. and will be joined
by Chanda Rubin and Lisa Raymond.  Jennifer Capriati, the 1992
gold medalist, withdrew with a hamstring injury on August 10 and
1996 gold winner Lindsay Davenport - who has won three straight
tournaments - declined an offer to join the team.

Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium had a brilliant start to 2004
that included winning the Australian Open.  However, she came
down with a viral infection that has sidelined her for the last
few months.  She plans to play and will be a medal threat if
healthy.

Other possible medalists include Amelie Mauresmo of France and a
quartet of Russians - Dementieva, French Open champ Anastasia
Myskina, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Nadia Petrova.

The Williams sisters will be joined in the doubles draw by
Raymond and 47-year-old Martina Navratilova, one of the sport's
all-time greats who will be playing in the Games for the first
time.

Desperate to be play in the Olympics - she declined the offer in
1988 and 1992 to rest for the U.S. Open - Navratilova broke up
her partnership with Kuznetsova in order to join forces with
Raymond and have time to impress the selection committee.

"I never played in the Olympics," Navratilova said at the time.
"That intrigued me.  It just worked out for both of us in the
best possible way, that this happens to be an Olympic year.  We
might have been playing together anyway, but I was having
serious doubts whether I wanted to play next year.  This sort of
pushed me over the edge, the possibility of playing in the
Olympics."

Both American teams are medal threats, along with Russian duos
Dementieva and Myskina and Kuznetsova and Elena Likhovtseva.

The American men are coached by Davis Cup captain Patrick
McEnroe, while the women are coached by Zina Garrison, who won
the 1988 gold medal in doubles with Pam Shriver, Navratilova's
regular partner, Pam Shriver.

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