Step back in time: Olympics 1988 - Women's doubles

A pretty weak field of players represented their country in doubles compared to todays attendance at the olympics. The top seed team was Pam Shriver & Zina Garrison (USA) who got a first round bye as their second seed opponents on the other side of the draw in terms of Steffi Graf and Claudia Kohde-Kilsch from Germany. The byes already put these two teams into the quarterfinals, only one match away from a medal.
Third seed Czech pairing Helena Sukova and Jana Novotna overcame the korean double of Kim and Lee in first round to reach the quarters, whilst that year's Roland Garros runner-up Natasha Zvereva teamed up with Larissa Savchenko for the USR as the fourth seeds. They easily overcame a mexican pairing to reach the quarters.

Shriver and Garrison came to action in the quarters, having only played one event together, the Canadian Open 1988 where they lost in the finals. The french pairing of Isabelle Demongeot and Nathalie Tauziat only gave them a hard time in the opening set, as Shriver/Garrison advanced 7:5 6:2.
Sukova and Novotna easily beat Japan's Inoue and Okamoto to advance to the semis, whilst Graf and Kohde-Kilsch had to suprass the canadian pairing of Carling Basset-Seguso and Jill Hetherington in three sets.
To that date, Graf and Kohde-Kilsch have only teamed up in national events such as the Fed-Cup or now the olympics and had an unbeaten record of 3 wins and no loss, including the Fed-Cup title run 1987 against the USA.

The 4th seeded Zvereva and Savchenko fell to the aussie combination of Elisabeth Smylie and Wendy Turnbull, securing Australia an important medal in tennis-competition.

The Semis were straight set affairs with Shriver and Garrison having trouble with their Australian opponents in both sets, but they advanced 7:6 (4) and 6:4.
Graf and Kohde-Kilsch's run finally came to an end when Sukova and Novotna beat them 7:5 6:3.

The final was a very close and high-class affair, that the american team won in a dramatic third set 4:6 6:2 10:8.
Sukova and Novotna came close to winning gold but they would get further chances at the next two olympics. It was the only title that Shriver and Garrison won together.
Germany and Australia took home the bronze medals.

Step back in time: Olympics 1988 - Women's Singles

The olympics kick off in roundabout 8 days and with that, the olympic tennis event. The ladies will battle it our for gold, silver and bronze, pretty much as they did at the past olympics, which wasn't always the cause.

In 1988 Tennis regained the olympic status as an amateur sports and so the ladies (and gentlemen of course) were able to compete again. In 1984 - for those of you who wonder - tennis was also part of the games but no medals were given away.

The 1988 games will be remembered as the only golden slam ever achieved in tennis history, as Steffi Graf not only managed to win all four slams, but she also took home the gold medal in Seoul.
Here's a look at the top seed ladies and the biggest upsets:

1. Steffi Graf (GER) - ended up winning gold
2. Chris Evert (USA) - fell round of last 16 to Raffaella Reggi (ITA)
3. Gabriela Sabatini (ARG) - eventual silver medalist
4. Pam Shriver (USA) - struggled in all round, esp. round of last 16 against Katerina Maleeva and lost to 8th seed Zina Garrison in QF
5. Helena Sukova (TCH) - early round victim to unknown korean player
6. Natasha Zvereva (URS) - lost to Sabatini in QF
7. Manuela Maleeva (BUL) - knocked out surprise Quarterfinalist Raffaella Reggi to reach semis and win the bronze medal
8. Zina Garrison (USA) - knocked out Countrywoman Shriver to reach the semis and win the only medal for the states in singles competition (expectations were on Shriver and Evert). Lost in the semis to Graf.

Steffi Graf won the final 6:3 6:3 against Gabriela Sabatini and took home the gold medal. It's been the only gold medal for Graf at olympic-events.

Other names in the draw that became more important in the near future were players such as Jana Novotna, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario or Nathalie Tauziat. All of them lost too early to really have a medal-chance.

Let me follow your thoughts on these "retro"-olympics ;-)