Agassi, Davenport to seek second gold

“To me, the Olympic Games represent the core of what sports is all about — human challenge and triumph,” Agassi said. “The reward is pride, not anything material or short-lived.”

The International Tennis Federation on Thursday released the direct acceptances into the Games, which were determined in large part by computer rankings. Thirty-nine countries are represented — from Argentina and Armenia to Yugoslavia and Zimbabwe.

Players selected by the ITF will be announced on Aug. 10, while those invited to the Games by a tripartite commission composed of the International Olympic Committee, the National Olympic committees and the ITF will be announced August 15.

Besides Agassi, the American men’s team is composed of Michael Chang, Todd Martin and Jeff Tarango in singles, and Alex O’Brien and Jared Palmer in doubles. The women’s team is composed of Davenport, Monica Seles and sisters Venus and Serena Williams.

“This is the strongest field ever to compete in the Olympic tennis event,” said ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti said.

The men’s field includes 17 of the top 20 players in the current ATP Tour entry system. Besides Sampras, Cedric Pioline of France and Mariano Puerta of Argentina turned down the Olympics.

Twelve of the current top-20 players have entered the women’s competition. However, the rules for the Olympic women’s single permits only three representatives from any one country. The United States has six women in the top 20, while France has five.

Among those who will compete in Sydney are Sweden’s Magnus Norman, Brazil’s Gustavo Kuerten, Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Spain’s Alex Corretja, Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer, Morocco’s Younes El Aynaoui and Britain’s Tim Henman in men’s singles.

The women’s singles field will include Natasha Zvereva of Belarus, Jing Qian Yi of China, Sonja Jeyaseelan of Canada, Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand, Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Anne Kremer of Luxembourg.