Federer, Azarenka given top billing at London Olympics

London: World number one players Roger Federer and Victoria Azarenka will head the list of seeded players in the draws for the London Olympics’ tennis tournament. The draw will be held at Wimbledon Thursday for the star-packed tennis competition beginning Saturday, Xinhua reports. Each of the singles tournaments has 64 competitors, with 16 seeds based on the world rankings of 11 June. [caption id=“attachment_389180” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Federer will be looking to win his first Olympic singles medal. Reuters[/caption] Reigning Wimbledon champion Federer aims to win his first Olympic singles medal, having captured men’s doubles gold with Stanislas Wawrinka at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Second-ranked Novak Djokovic is the defending bronze medallist and fourth-ranked Andy Murray will look to win a medal on home soil. Reigning gold medallist Rafael Nadal was forced to withdraw from the event with knee tendinitis. In women’s category, Belarussian Azarenka will lead the pack of top-10 players in the prestigious event to be held at the All England Club. The doubles events will each contain 32 teams, with eight seeded pairs selected at the discretion of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). If there are two players or doubles teams from the same National Olympic Committee (NOC) in any event, they will be drawn in opposite halves of the draw. If there are three or four players or teams from the same NOC, they will be drawn into different quarters of the draw. The draw for the 16-team mixed doubles, based on the rankings of 11 June, will be held on 31 July. Players can only enter the mixed doubles event if they are competing in at least one of the other four events. IANS