French number one Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who could be ruled out of Wimbledon with a badly twisted little finger, was on Monday selected for France’s Olympic team.
The French Tennis Federation (FFT) said that world number five Tsonga, Gilles Simon (13), Gael Monfils (15) and Richard Gasquet (19) were selected thanks to their status as France’s top-ranked players as of June 11 this year. The 27-year-old Tsonga suffered a miserable third round exit from Queen’s Club last Thursday, and his agent Morgan Menahem said afterwards thoughts had immediately moved to treating his finger ahead of Wimbledon, where he was a semi-finalist last season.
Tsonga missed out on the 2008 Olympics because of a knee injury while Gasquet skipped Beijing to prepare better for the US Open that year. Monfils reached the quarter-finals in Beijing before losing to Serb Novak Djokovic, who went on to win bronze and is now world number one. Simon reached the last-16 before losing to American James Blake. Spaniard Rafael Nadal is the reigning Olympic men’s champion.
The FFT also announced that a wildcard has been requested to allow Alize Cornet, who on Sunday won her second career tour title at Bad Gastein, to take part in the women’s tournament. French number one, and world number eight, Marion Bartoli is ineligible having not taken part in the Fed Cup in the last two years. Cornet played in the 2008 Games and fell in the last-16 to American Serena Williams. Russia swelt the podium in Beijing with Elena Dementivea taking gold, Dinara Safina silver and Vera Zvonareva the bronze. Michael Llodra and Tsonga and Julien Benneteau and Gasquet will be the two men’s doubles pairings, while a wildcard has been requested for Cornet to team up with Kristina Mladenovic in the women’s doubles. The Olympic tennis tournament will be held on the grass at Wimbledon from July 28 to August 5.
