U.S. Olympic Women’s Tennis Team

Three former gold medal winners and the world’s top doubles player will represent the United States in women’s tennis competition at the Beijing Olympics. The three singles players are familiar names to tennis fans: Venus Williams, Serena Williams and Lindsay Davenport. The fourth player, Liezel Huber, became a U.S. citizen in 2007 after representing her native South Africa in the 2000 games.

Serena Williams will make her second Olympic appearance having won gold in doubles in 2000 with her sister (pictured). Venus Williams and Davenport will make their third Olympic appearances and both have won gold. The sisters will compete as a doubles team, as will Davenport and Huber. The women’s coach is Zina Garrison.

The first woman to win an Olympic medal in any sport was a tennis player: Charlotte Cooper of Great Britain in 1900. The sport was first played in the Olympics in 1896, but was dropped after 1924 because of conflict over amateur vs professional competitors. It returned to the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Since then, the United States has won 15 medals in tennis, more than any other nation. They were shut out of the medals ceremonies in 2004.

A maximum of 172 players will compete in singles and doubles on 10 hard-surface courts in Beijing. 

The members of the U.S. women’s team are:

Serena Williams (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) – Age: 26, singles and doubles

Venus Williams (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) – Age: 28, singles and doubles

Lindsay Davenport (Laguna Beach, Calif.) – Age: 32, singles and doubles

Liezel Huber (South Africa) – Age: 28, doubles

For more information on the U.S. women’s Olympic tennis team, go to their website. If you want to see all U.S. Olympic qualifiers in every sport for the Beijing games starting in August, start your search on this official U.S. Olympics page.