pre-team announcement

tennis in the modern times has been an olympic sport since 1988 (after 64 years away from the olympics). in previous olympics, the usa team had been integrated by the no.1 doubles player at the time, twice in the most recent olympics by gigi fernandez. billie jean king had stated previously that her decisions over the fed cup and olympic team were always simple, since she "went off the rankings". it was therefore expected that, not just in all logic and fairness, but also in accordance with the policy of billie and of the usta, the no.1 doubles player would be chosen for the team.

billie jean king choses serena over lisa

billie jean king chose: lindsay davenport, venus williams and monica seles for the singles as was expected, since they were the top 3 singles players (by the wta rankings) and serena williams for the doubles spot. that was lisa raymond's spot as her no.1 world ranking in doubles dictated. it was argued that billie jean king had chosen the best player, how anyone can be better than the no.1 doubles player in the world is beyond understanding. lisa deserved that spot. she had the ranking, the titles and the tennis. but she was cheated out of it.

lisa fights back

in the face of such injustice, lisa decided to fight back and appealed her case. an arbitrator was designated to determine whether lisa should go to the olympics or not. the arbitrator obviously thought lisa was right, and made the usta pay for her legal expenses, but was not brave enough to make the usta detract from their decision, although it was dictated that the rules for choosing the olympic team were re-written and clarified for the future.

showing them all

not two months after the olympics, usa was to play the fed cup final against spain. ironically enough, serena williams was unwilling to defend her country's colors now that a place for the olympics was not in the line anymore (as she has refused to do in 2002, we'll see what happens when it comes down to olympic year again). where others would have been bitter and resentful, lisa was not. she agreed to play fed cup and won the final point for the usa in their win over spain. a fed cup winner at last. always willing to play for her country.

regardless of what the usta and billie jean king now owe her.

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