The

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Venus Williams Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American professional tennis player. A former world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, Williams has won seven Grand Slam singles titles, five at Wimbledon and two at the US Open. She is ...

defeated

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

Elena Dementieva Elena Viacheslavovna Dementieva (, ; born 15 October 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She won the singles gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, having previously won the silver medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. ...

in the final, 6–2, 6–4 to win the gold medal in Women's Singles

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

. In the bronze medal match, the United States'

Monica Seles Monica Seles (; hu, Széles Mónika, ; sr, Моника Селеш, Monika Seleš; born December 2, 1973) is a retired professional tennis player who represented Yugoslavia and the United States. A former world No. 1, she won nine Grand Sla ...

defeated Australia's Jelena Dokic, 6–1, 6–4. Williams' victory was the third consecutive gold medal in the women's singles for the United States, all by different players (preceded by

Jennifer Capriati Jennifer Maria Capriati (born March 29, 1976) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. A member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, she won three singles Grand Slam titles and was the gold medalist at the 1992 Summer Olympics ...

and

Lindsay Davenport Lindsay Ann Davenport Leach (born June 8, 1976) is an American former professional tennis player. Davenport was ranked singles world No. 1 for a total of 98 weeks, and was the year-end singles world No. 1 four times (1998, 2001, 2004, and 2005) ...

). The tournament was held at the Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre in Sydney, Australia from 19 September until 28 September. There were 64 competitors from 33 nations, with each nation having up to 3 players. The United States' Davenport was the reigning gold medalist from 1996, but she withdrew from her second round match due to injury.

Background

This was the ninth appearance of the women's singles tennis. A women's event was held only once during the first three Games (only men's tennis was played in 1896 and 1904), but has been held at every Olympics for which there was a tennis tournament since 1908. Tennis was not a medal sport from 1928 to 1984, though there were demonstration events in 1968 and 1984. Returning from the 1996 Games were gold medalist

of the United States, silver medalist (and 1992 bronze medalist)

Arantxa Sánchez Vicario Aránzazu Isabel María "Arantxa" Sánchez Vicario (; born 18 December 1971) is a Spanish former world No. 1 tennis player. She won 14 Grand Slam titles: four in singles, six in women's doubles, and four in mixed doubles. She also won four Ol ...

of Spain, and three of the four quarterfinal losers ( Conchita Martínez of Spain, Iva Majoli of Croatia, and

of the United States). Davenport and Seles were joined by

, in the middle of a 35-match and 6-tournament winning streak, as the top 3 seeds in the tournament. Sánchez Vicario and Martínez were 4th and 5th; Spain and the United States were favourites. Colombia, Haiti, Paraguay, Slovenia, Thailand, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela each made their debut in the event. France made its eighth appearance, most among nations to that point, having missed only the 1908 Games in London (when only British players competed).

Competition format

The competition was a single-elimination tournament with a bronze medal match. Matches were all best-of-three sets. The 12-point tie-breaker was used in any set, except the third, that reached 6–6.

Schedule

All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (

UTC+10 UTC+10:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +10:00. This time is used in: As standard time (year-round) ''Principal cities: Brisbane, Gold Coast, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Port Moresby, Dededo, Saipan'' North Asia *Russia – ...

)

Seeds

Competitors

Draw

Key

* INV = Tripartite invitation * IP = ITF place * Alt =

Alternate Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...

* r =

Retired Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

* w/o =

Walkover John_Carpenter_was_disqualified,_prompting_his_teammates_John_Taylor_(athlete).html" ;"title="John_Carpenter_(athlete).html" "title="Athletics at the 1908 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres">men's 400 metres running in a walkover. Americ ...

Finals

Top half

Section 1

Section 2

Bottom half

Section 3

Section 4

References

Drawsheet from the ITF Olympic site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tennis at the 2000 Summer Olympics - Women's singles Women's singles 2000 in women's tennis Women's events at the 2000 Summer Olympics