Nadal faces rocky road to tennis gold medal

Rafael Nadal must negotiate a path full of danger if he is to add an Olympic gold medal to the French Open and Wimbledon crowns he has won this year.

Yesterday's draw for the Olympic tennis tournament paired the Spaniard with Italian Potito Starace in the first round but more worrying obstacles lie in wait for the 22-year-old second seed.

Former world number one Lleyton Hewitt of Australia looms in the second round while in-form Andy Murray is a probable quarter-final opponent and third seed Novak Djokovic a likely semi-final foe.

Top seed Roger Federer, who will lose the world number one spot to Nadal on August 18, looks to have a kinder draw, although volatile Russian Dmitry Tursunov will provide a stern opening test for the Swiss who is struggling for form.

Federer could play Tomas Berdych, the man who beat him in Athens four years ago, in the third round of the 64-strong draw as he seeks his first Olympic medal.

Women's top seed Ana Ivanovic, who like Federer has a fragile hold on the world number one ranking, opens against Ukraine's Mariya Koryttseva. Fellow Serb and second seed Jelena Jankovic should have few alarms against Cara Black of Zimbabwe.

Americans Venus and Serena Williams are in opposite halves and will be favourites to progress for a repeat of their clash in the Wimbledon singles final.

Serena, seeded four, meets Olga Govortsova of Belarus in the first round while Wimbledon champion Venus, seeded seven, starts against Swiss Timea Bacsinszky.

The tennis event, which also includes men's and women's doubles, boasts the strongest entry since the sport returned to the Olympic fold in 1988.

American Andy Roddick is the highest-profile absentee in the men's singles while Russian Maria Sharapova withdrew because of a recurrent shoulder injury. Justine Henin, the reigning women's singles champion, has retired.

China's big hope in the women's singles is Zheng Jie after her sensational run to the semi-finals of Wimbledon. She has a tough first round opponent, however, in 11th seed Agnes Szavay of Hungary.

American twins Bob and Mike Bryan top the men's doubles draw which includes Nadal, who partners Tommy Robredo, and Federer who forms a Swiss pairing with Stanislas Wawrinka.

Russian duo Svetlana Kuzne-tsova and Dinara Safina are top seeds in the women's doubles which brought China gold four years ago through Sun Tiantian and Li Ting.

Yan Zi and Zheng Jie, the Wimbledon and Australian Open champions in 2006, lead China's hopes for gold this time.

The Olympic tournament starts tomorrow.