Seeds tumble as tennis suffers

Local favourite Hewitt fell at first hurdle

The BBC's Iain Carter sees the big names fall by the wayside and assesses the damage to tennis' hopes of true Olympic recognition.

The International Tennis Federation have high hopes that this would be the Games that would firmly establish tennis in the Olympics firmament.

With the Olympics being staged in a tennis-mad nation and with the home stars like Pat Rafter, Mark Philippoussis and Lleyton Hewitt, huge crowds were guaranteed.

But the first round results have mitigated against the ITF and left the tournament short of big names.

Surviving

Now, after the opening round of matches, the top half of the men's draw features only one surviving seeded player.

Number six seed Alex Corretja remains but top seed Marat Safin, number seven seed Tim Henman and, most damagingly of all, fourth seed Hewitt have all gone.

It is a huge disappointment not only for the Olympic Park fans but for the sport in general.

The event has boasted a high quality field but it desperately needed the stars of the game to reach the latter stages.

Computer

Perhaps the problems should be attributed to the random computer that was responsible for the draw.

The likes of Hewitt, Safin Henman and Britain's Greg Rusedski were all handed dangerous opponents and all bit the dust.

This means the immense expectations that rest on Rafter and Philippoussis have increased substantially and all of Olympic Park are keeping their fingers crossed they can deliver.