Future Tennis Stars

Richard Gasquet decided against participating in the upcoming Beijing Olympics to instead prepare for the US Open.

“In agreement with his coach Guillaume Peyre, Richard Gasquet announces that he will not participate in the Olympics in Beijing,” said a statement released by his Team Lagardere organisation.

Andy Roddick, Mardy Fish, Tommy Haas and Ashley Harkleroad have all turned down spots on their Olympic teams to prepare for the final Slam of the year.

As a side note, I highly doubt skipping the Olympics where you would face the likes of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic to play in an event like the Legg Mason Classic where you would face sure-fire US Open contenders like…oh I don’t know…Paul-Henri Mathieu? And I hate to break it to Roddick and the rest but it’s not like you have much of a chance in New York anyway. With Roger back to being Roger and Djokovic, your chances to win are small at best.

Jelena Jankovic and Dinara Safina pulled ouf of the upcoming DFS Classic. Jankovic cited the same arm injury that gave her problems during the French Open while Safina pulled out with a bad back.

Jankovic and Safina join Maria Sharapova in withdrawing from the Wimbledon warmup. Jankovic beat Sharapova in last year’s final.

Maria Sharapova is skipping all warmup events for Wimbledon. Coming off a disappointing fourth round loss to Dinara Safina, Sharapova has been training for Wimbledon in Florida instead of being in England.

Sharapova had twice won the DFS Classic title including in 2004 when she won Wimbledon.

Maria is following in the footsteps of the Williams sisters in skipping all pre-Wimbledon events.