Rally to the cause: A little over a century ago, Ireland's John Pius Boland was a student at Christ's College, Oxford when he invited a Greek friend, Thrasyvoalos Manaos, to speak at the Oxford Union on the subject of the upcoming Olympic Games. During the Easter holidays in 1896, Boland travelled to Athens as a spectator, but Manaos, who was by then the secretary of the organising committee, arranged to have the Irishman entered into the tennis competition. The soon-to-be barrister, author, politician and ardent proponent of Irish independence and the Irish language went on to win the singles, becoming the first ever Olympic tennis gold medallist.
Off the bench: Boland added to his singles gold when he joined Fredrich "Fritz" Traun in the doubles. He entered the tournament at the last minute when Traun's partner fell ill. They won the final and, when the Union Jack was raised to honour Boland's part in the victory, he objected vehemently to the organisers, who apologised and agreed to have an Irish flag prepared.
What next? Well, a few more Irish tennis players spun their way into history. Harold Mahoney arrived in Paris in 1900 and took silver, while Major Richie and Ireland's James Parke also lost in the men's doubles final in London in 1908.
Trivial asides: At the closing ceremony in 1896, Britain's George Robertson greatly pleased the crowd by reading an ode which he had written in ancient Greek in Pindaric meter to honour the Olympic games. That respect did not carry over to 1920, when a second round match involving Britain's Gordon Lowe and A Zerlendis of Greece lasted for almost six hours over a two-day period. At one point the ball boys, bored silly by the cautious rallying, left the court and went to lunch, forcing the two players to suspend play. Lowe eventually won 14-12, 6-8, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.
A fine return: After Paris in 1924, tennis disappeared from the Olympic landscape before Seoul offered professional players the chance to clean up in the biggest "amateur" event in the world. Miloslav Mecir won the men's event, with Steffi Graf taking gold in the women's.
Net participation: The top professionals are still a little iffy about tennis at the Olympics - let's face it, the money isn't great. Participation is based on how the individual players perceive the competition. Graf thought it important, as did Jennifer Capriati and Lindsay Davenport. Now entry is based on ranking. The appearance of the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, possibly playing in this year's doubles, should heighten the profile.
Big names: Andre Agassi won the men's gold in Atlanta while Davenport took the women's singles title. Home hopes around Sydney this year will rest with the current young crop of Australian players like Mark Philippoussis, Leyton Hewitt and Jelena Dokic. But getting a straight answer out of any tennis professional is like pulling teeth. Dokic certainly seemed interested when she played at Wimbledon earlier this month. But with all of those strains and tiredness and niggling injuries, who knows?
Select few: For direct acceptance to the men's singles, male players have to be ranked at 73 in the world or more, while the women's cut off point is 69. There is more generosity in the doubles events, with 265 the ranking mark for men and 147 for women. A maximum of four men per country can compete in the men's singles and three women per country can take part in the women's singles.
Full medal jacket: The millennium games, as we now call them, mark the 13th occasion of tennis as a full medal sport and the 100th year of women's participation. Fifty medals have been awarded since the re-introduction of tennis in 1988, when officials finally came to realise that there is really no such thing as amateurism, only well-prepared winners and part-time losers.
Irish hopes: So far no tennis players are contained in the Olympic Council of Ireland's list for Sydney. Although not quite as successful as John Pius Boland, Owen Casey has appeared in three Olympic Games.
Mixed up: There was a mixed doubles competition in the Olympics between 1900 and 1924, although there was no competition held in St Louis in 1904 or London in 1908. At Stockholm in 1912, a Mrs Fick inadvertently smashed her partner in the face rather severely. In the words of the official report: "This little accident seemed to put Setterwall off his game, for his play fell off tremendously."
The Steffi factor: In 1984, when Graf was 15-years-old, she won the Olympic demonstration tournament despite being its youngest entrant. She then arrived in Seoul with a five-month 35-match winning streak. In the final she met Gabriela Sabatini, the only player to beat her in 1988, but came through in straight sets. Graf lost the 1992 final to Jennifer Capriati.
