Men's Tennis lot drawing released

Roger Federer of Switzerland will face the big-hitting Russian Dmitry Tursunov in the first round of the 2008 Olympic Tennis event in Beijing, as the World No. 1, who turns 27 on August 8, bids for his first major title of the season.

The Swiss has said an Olympic medal is a top priority after he failed to win a Grand Slam title this year for the first time in six years.

This is Federer's last tournament before relinquishing his position at the top of the rankings to Rafael Nadal of Spain on August 18. Nadal faces Potito Starace of Italy in his opening match.

Wimbledon and 2008 Roland Garros champion Nadal, who is arguably the man of the season, makes his Olympic Men's Singles debut in Beijing, having competed in Men's Doubles at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.

Tursunov's fellow Russian Nikolay Davydenko, seeded No. 4 here, has an equally tough task against rising star Ernests Gulbis of Latvia.

Defending Men's Singles Olympic champion Nicolas Massu of Chile faces Belgium's Steve Darcis while Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, who partnered Massu to Olympic gold in the Doubles in Athens, takes on China's best hope in the shape of Sun Peng, ranked world No. 453.

Massu and Gonzalez will team up for the Doubles again to take on Croatia's Marin Cilic and Ivan Ljubicic. Ljubicic will be looking to improve on his bronze Men's Doubles medal win in Athens with Mario Ancic, who was forced to withdraw from the event this week with recurring illness.

Hope for China in the Men's Singles draw was strengthened after Zeng Shaoxuan stepped in as replacement for the injured Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, who withdrew from the event.

Zeng, however, has a tough task against Argentina's David Nalbandian, who tends to flourish in a team environment and leads the Argentine Davis Cup team to the World Group semifinals next month.

Last week's Cincinnati champion Andy Murray of Great Britain, playing here with a career-high ranking of No. 6, faces Lu Yen-hsun of Chinese Taipei, ranked 68 places below him. Murray is placed in the same draw with World No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia who he defeated in the final at Cincinnati.

Lleyton Hewitt of Australia could meet Nadal in the second round should he defeat Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden in their opening match. Hewitt has not played in competition since Wimbledon while undergoing assessment on a hip injury.

Spain will be the biggest threat for a medal in Beijing having dominated the leader board this year with 15 titles. In addition to Nadal, the nation is also represented by No.5 seed David Ferrer and No.11 seed Nicolas Almagro, who have tough first-round encounters with Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia and Gael Monfils of France respectively.

Tommy Robredo completes Spain's line-up in Singles and will face Andreas Seppi of Italy.

Komlavi Loglo of Togo and Kevin Anderson of South Africa both received ITF placement and will meet in their first-round match. Loglo is Togo's first representative in an Olympic Tennis event.

The Men's Doubles draw has also thrown up an intriguing first-round clash between grand slam doubles champions Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra of France and Israel's Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram, while US top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan have a less daunting task in the shape of Mark Knowles and Devin Mullings of Bahamas.