Wimbledon champion Ash Barty has "a great chance" of securing Olympic glory for Australia in Tokyo.
That is the view of former Wimbledon winner Pat Cash, though he warned there is plenty of scope for upsets in both the men's and women's singles.
Monica Puig claimed a surprise victory at Rio 2016 - then ranked 34th, she stunned Angelique Kerber in the final after beating Petra Kvitova and Garbine Muguruza en route to give Puerto Rico their first-ever gold medal.
Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are two greats on the men's side who have not tasted Olympic glory, something the Serbian will look to put right this year as he pursues a Golden Slam.
Cash, though, would not be surprised to see the Olympics throw up another surprise result, even though he hopes to see compatriot Barty come out on top in the women's tournament.
He told Stats Perform: "The women's draw is very, very even. If you don't play well in one of those matches, you're out.
"There's no such thing as an easy first round really in a tournament such as the Olympics, particularly the men’s side where it's best of three sets. So if you slip up, you're gone.
"There's no chance of coming back from two sets to one down, because it's over. So that's trickier for somebody like Djokovic who can typically run people into the ground.
"Ash has got a great chance of winning the Olympics, but I think probably there's 30 girls who think they can do that as well and they're probably right.
"We've seen some unusual results in the Olympics and shorter form tournaments like that, also on the men's side.
"It's very hard to say, but obviously, [Barty] is in great form and full of confidence - that goes a long way to winning a gold medal."
There have been a host of high-profile withdrawals from the tennis in Tokyo.
Rafael Nadal, Federer, Dominic Thiem, Matteo Berrettini, Serena Williams, Sofia Kenin, Simona Halep and Coco Gauff among a large list of top players who will be missing.
Some absences were unavoidable due to injuries or positive coronavirus cases but some players have opted to rest amid a hectic calendar, avoiding Japan's strict COVID-19 rules in the process.
Cash has mixed views on the subject but does feel playing at the Olympics should be seen as a rare and valuable opportunity.
"I think I think they would [look back fondly at winning a medal]," said Cash.
"It’s certainly one of the regrets in my career that I didn't play the Olympics [in 1988]. I had a niggling injury and decided to rest.
"Looking back, I thought I could have won a medal, maybe even a gold medal. I would have probably given it a really good shot.
"In my era it wasn't the pinnacle. I think Novak Djokovic has talked about that now, he said, ‘The main thing for me is winning slams, they're the pinnacle of our game’.
"But to win a gold medal, it's pretty cool. You'll find that the players who do win a gold medal, if you tell the grandkids, 'I won a Wimbledon trophy' or 'I won a gold medal', they’ll go, 'Oh, where’s the gold medal?'
"Having said that, there's a lot of players who aren't playing the Olympics this year. Certainly for a few years, it was a novelty - I'm not sure if it's wearing off or not.
"But to perform for your country, I think is an honour and we haven't had the opportunity to do that much in the last couple of years.
"With the Davis Cup, the men's competition is really just a fading, unfortunately, dying competition, which not many people really care about any more.
"That's very, very sad, so the Olympics is often the best opportunity to represent your country."
Cash delved deeper into the dilemma players are likely to have faced.
"I wouldn't put any criticism on anybody for the personal choice after these last 18 months," he said. "It's their choice, everybody's got a different journey in this and it's part of their careers.
"With COVID and all that sort of stuff that's going on - the bubbles - some of the stresses are unknown like being away from family and friends for months on end and not actually have any break.
"Everybody's got their own different stories, some of them are injured, some were coming back from injury, some think 'I'm not going to make a trip to Japan' - with all the restrictions it's not going be fun.
"It's not going to be a fun Games where you can go there and watch the other athletes. In Los Angeles [the 1984 Games] the highlight was actually to go and watch the track events, which I did.
"That's not going to happen, you're in a hotel, you're in the village or, you're gonna go straight to the tennis and back only to a certain area of the village, I think it's going to be locked down for tennis players only.
"You may not be able to mingle with the other athletes. So I think a lot of the fun has been taken out of this.
"But again, it's representing your country and trying to get trying to get a gold medal. So some players will go to great lengths to do that."
Rybakina books place in Miami Open final after extending winning streak to 13
Elena Rybakina is now one win away from completing the Sunshine Double after defeating Jessica Pegula 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 in Thursday's Miami Open semi-final.
Only four women have ever claimed the Sunshine Double – which requires winning both the Indian Wells Open and Miami Open. Steffi Graf did it in both 1994 and 1996, Kim Clijsters did it in 2005, Victoria Azarenka accomplished the feat in 2016 and current world number one Iga Swiatek did it just 12 months ago.
Rybakina sent a message to the tennis world as she knocked out both world number one Iga Swiatek and world number two Aryna Sabalenka to take home the Indian Wells crown, and she has carried that form into Miami.
After prevailing in three-setters against Anna Kalinskaya and Paula Badosa, the Kazakhstan representative has now rattled off consecutive straight sets victories against Elise Mertens, Martina Trevisan and Pegula to extend her winning streak to 13 matches.
Against Pegula, Rybakina served 11 aces to the American's one, and in the process she became the first woman to serve at least 10 aces during five matches in the same tournament since Serena Williams back at Wimbledon in 2016.
By securing the first-set tiebreaker, Rybakina claimed her tour-leading seventh tiebreaker win of the season, with a perfect 7-0 record.
She will meet the winner between Petra Kvitova and Sorana Cirstea in the final after the Czech veteran emerged victorious 6-4 3-6 6-3 in her quarter-final against Russia's Ekaterina Alexandrova.
The neck-and-neck contest saw Kvitova only narrowly edge the total point count 96-91, but she created nine break points to Alexandrova's six.
Kvitova, 33, is now one win away from her 41st WTA singles final, where she would be seeking her 30th WTA title, and her ninth at the WTA 1000 level. It would be her first at this level since the 2018 Madrid Open, following defeats in the finals of the 2019 Dubai Championships, the 2020 Qatar Open and the 2022 Cincinnati Open.
Alcaraz continues quest for Sunshine Double with Fritz win, Medvedev and Khachanov progress
World number one Carlos Alcaraz made it 10 wins in a row in Miami and kept alive his hopes of a rare Sunshine Double as he beat Taylor Fritz in straight sets in Thursday's quarter-finals.
Alcaraz swept aside the 2022 Indian Wells champion 6-4 6-2 in a lopsided Miami Open contest which lasted only 79 minutes, with the Spaniard breaking Fritz in the opening game of both sets.
Both players hit 20 winners, including 11 each on their respective forehands, but Fritz almost doubled Alcaraz' unforced errors count (28-13).
The 19-year-old was impressive from the baseline and overwhelmed Fritz in the end. The American only won 38 per cent on his second serve.
Alcaraz, who won the Indian Wells title a fortnight ago, remains on track to become the eighth male to win the Sunshine Double (Indian Wells and Miami), with Roger Federer the last to achieve that in 2017.
The Spaniard would join Federer (2005, 2006, 2017), Novak Djokovic (2011, 2014, 2015, 2016), Andre Agassi (2001), Marcelo Rios (1998), Pete Sampras (1994), Michael Chang (1992) and Jim Courier (1991) in achieving the Sunshine Double.
Alcaraz will take on Italian 10th seed Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals, after the duo faced off in the Indian Wells last four a fortnight ago, with the Spaniard winning in straight sets.
In-form Daniil Medvedev progressed to the semi-finals with a 6-3 7-5 victory over American qualifier Chrstopher Eubanks, who had enjoyed a dream run in Miami.
Medvedev has a 27-3 record this season and will pursue a fifth straight ATP Tour final when he takes on compatriot Karen Khachanov in the semi-finals.
Khachanov, who made this year's Australian Open semi-finals, defeated Francisco Cerundolo 6-3 6-2 in 76 minutes.
Medvedev chasing fifth straight final - 'I've never had such a good start to the season'
Daniil Medvedev says he has never started a season this well before following his 27th victory of the year to secure his place in the Miami Open semi-finals on Thursday.
The Russian world number five prevailed over American qualifier Christopher Eubanks 6-3 7-5 to qualify for the Miami semis after falling in the last eight in both 2021 and 2022.
Medvedev's progress comes after his 19-match winning run was ended in the Indian Wells Open final by Carlos Alcaraz a fortnight ago.
The 27-year-old has now won 22 of his past 23 matches and is 27-3 on the season, having won titles in Rotterdam, Doha and Dubai and is now chasing a fifth straight appearance in an ATP Tour final.
"I have never had such a good start to the season," Medvedev said. "A lot of matches won, tournaments won. I am really happy.
"I was disappointed at Indian Wells when my streak ended on the same number as last time. The only thing you can do is begin a new streak and I am happy to bring my form into Miami."
Medvedev will rise up to fourth in the ATP rankings if he lifts the Miami title, with the incumbent Casper Ruud suffering a third-round loss to Botic van de Zandschulp earlier this week.
The 2021 US Open champion is clear atop the ATP standings for most match wins in 2023, with his 27 well ahead of the next best, Cameron Norrie (21-5).
The Russian, who will take on countryman Karen Khachanov in the semi-finals, credited work with mental coaches for his improvement in 2023.
"That's something I want to improve," he said. "For example, talking about Indian Wells, I had my tantrums, which it's not good.
"It can throw you out from the concentration, and it's not a good look anyway, but I managed to still win matches and still be concentrated during those matches."
On the Khachanov match-up, which he leads 3-1 on head-to-head, he added: "I think maybe just a little bit you have to kind of force yourself even more to be focused, and when I say this, it's just because they know your game so well and you know theirs so well.
"I'm almost sure we know how the match is going to go tomorrow, and it's a question of who's going to make the best shot out of [the shots] we're going to play."
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
