Wimbledon champion Ash Barty has "a great chance" of securing Olympic glory for Australia in Tokyo.
That is the view of former Wimbledon winner Pat Cash, though he warned there is plenty of scope for upsets in both the men's and women's singles.
Monica Puig claimed a surprise victory at Rio 2016 - then ranked 34th, she stunned Angelique Kerber in the final after beating Petra Kvitova and Garbine Muguruza en route to give Puerto Rico their first-ever gold medal.
Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are two greats on the men's side who have not tasted Olympic glory, something the Serbian will look to put right this year as he pursues a Golden Slam.
Cash, though, would not be surprised to see the Olympics throw up another surprise result, even though he hopes to see compatriot Barty come out on top in the women's tournament.
He told Stats Perform: "The women's draw is very, very even. If you don't play well in one of those matches, you're out.
"There's no such thing as an easy first round really in a tournament such as the Olympics, particularly the men’s side where it's best of three sets. So if you slip up, you're gone.
"There's no chance of coming back from two sets to one down, because it's over. So that's trickier for somebody like Djokovic who can typically run people into the ground.
"Ash has got a great chance of winning the Olympics, but I think probably there's 30 girls who think they can do that as well and they're probably right.
"We've seen some unusual results in the Olympics and shorter form tournaments like that, also on the men's side.
"It's very hard to say, but obviously, [Barty] is in great form and full of confidence - that goes a long way to winning a gold medal."
There have been a host of high-profile withdrawals from the tennis in Tokyo.
Rafael Nadal, Federer, Dominic Thiem, Matteo Berrettini, Serena Williams, Sofia Kenin, Simona Halep and Coco Gauff among a large list of top players who will be missing.
Some absences were unavoidable due to injuries or positive coronavirus cases but some players have opted to rest amid a hectic calendar, avoiding Japan's strict COVID-19 rules in the process.
Cash has mixed views on the subject but does feel playing at the Olympics should be seen as a rare and valuable opportunity.
"I think I think they would [look back fondly at winning a medal]," said Cash.
"It’s certainly one of the regrets in my career that I didn't play the Olympics [in 1988]. I had a niggling injury and decided to rest.
"Looking back, I thought I could have won a medal, maybe even a gold medal. I would have probably given it a really good shot.
"In my era it wasn't the pinnacle. I think Novak Djokovic has talked about that now, he said, ‘The main thing for me is winning slams, they're the pinnacle of our game’.
"But to win a gold medal, it's pretty cool. You'll find that the players who do win a gold medal, if you tell the grandkids, 'I won a Wimbledon trophy' or 'I won a gold medal', they’ll go, 'Oh, where’s the gold medal?'
"Having said that, there's a lot of players who aren't playing the Olympics this year. Certainly for a few years, it was a novelty - I'm not sure if it's wearing off or not.
"But to perform for your country, I think is an honour and we haven't had the opportunity to do that much in the last couple of years.
"With the Davis Cup, the men's competition is really just a fading, unfortunately, dying competition, which not many people really care about any more.
"That's very, very sad, so the Olympics is often the best opportunity to represent your country."
Cash delved deeper into the dilemma players are likely to have faced.
"I wouldn't put any criticism on anybody for the personal choice after these last 18 months," he said. "It's their choice, everybody's got a different journey in this and it's part of their careers.
"With COVID and all that sort of stuff that's going on - the bubbles - some of the stresses are unknown like being away from family and friends for months on end and not actually have any break.
"Everybody's got their own different stories, some of them are injured, some were coming back from injury, some think 'I'm not going to make a trip to Japan' - with all the restrictions it's not going be fun.
"It's not going to be a fun Games where you can go there and watch the other athletes. In Los Angeles [the 1984 Games] the highlight was actually to go and watch the track events, which I did.
"That's not going to happen, you're in a hotel, you're in the village or, you're gonna go straight to the tennis and back only to a certain area of the village, I think it's going to be locked down for tennis players only.
"You may not be able to mingle with the other athletes. So I think a lot of the fun has been taken out of this.
"But again, it's representing your country and trying to get trying to get a gold medal. So some players will go to great lengths to do that."
Raducanu withdraws from French Open qualifying
Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from French Open qualifying, which starts on Monday.
Having endured an injury-hit few years since her 2021 US Open triumph, Raducanu was able to enter the year's second grand slam with a protected ranking of 103rd.
However, that was not enough to put her on the automatic entry list and she was not awarded a wildcard, making her third alternate for the women's draw.
No reason has been given for Raducanu's withdrawal from next week's qualifying tournament, and she can now only feature at Roland-Garros if three players drop out.
Raducanu was beaten 6-2 6-2 by Argentine qualifier Maria Lourdes Carle in the first round of the Madrid Open last month, subsequently saying she was "mentally and emotionally exhausted".
A host of withdrawals meant she did not have to go through qualifying for the Australian Open earlier this year, though she was beaten by China's Wang Yafan in the second round.
Raducanu has not made it past the second round in six major appearances since her triumph at Flushing Meadows, and she missed the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open last year after undergoing wrist and ankle surgeries.
Swiatek seals Italian Open hat-trick after soaring past Sabalenka
Iga Swiatek stormed to her third Italian Open title following a dominant 6-2 6-3 victory over Aryna Sabalenka.
The world number one took just under an hour-and-a-half to deny the world number two, and complete a hat-trick of triumphs in Rome.
The pair were contesting a second final in as many events, with Swiatek saving three championship points before eventually prevailing in the Madrid Open showpiece a fortnight ago.
However, it was one-way traffic this time around. The Pole converted two out of three break points as she controlled the opening set.
Sabalenka was the last player to deny Swiatek in a WTA final, that coming at last year's Madrid Open.
Although, the second seed was helpless as her opponent broke again in game seven of the second set, before wrapping up a fourth title of the season ahead of the French Open later this month.
Data debrief
Landing her third Italian Open title before turning 23, Swiatek is only the second player to achieve that feat after Gabriela Sabatini.
In fact, at 22 years and 352 days old, she is the youngest player to win 10 WTA 1000 titles since the introduction of the format in 2009.
The Pole also became the third player to triumph in Madrid and Rome during the same season, after Dinara Safina (2009) and Serena Williams (2013).
Jarry defeats Paul to set up Zverev showdown in Italian Open final
Nicolas Jarry defeated Tommy Paul in three sets on Friday to set up a showdown with Alexander Zverev in the Italian Open final.
The men's world number 24 prevailed 6-3 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 in a little under three hours in Rome to reach his first ATP Masters 1000 final.
Jarry earned the only break of serve in the eighth game of the opening set, but Paul - who dropped just one set in four matches en route to this stage - hit back in the second.
Birthday boy Paul lost serve to trail 4-2 at one stage, but he produced one of the shots of the tournament at the ideal moment and soon dragged it back to 4-4.
A gruelling set concluded with Paul taking the tie-break 7-3, but Jarry was unperturbed and won the deciding set with his fifth match point to see off Paul in a gruelling contest.
Data Debrief:
Jarry is the third male Chilean in the Open Era to reach the singles final of the Italian Open after Marcelo Rios (1997-98) and Fernando Gonzalez (2007).
The 28-year-old registered 13 aces against Paul to his opponent's seven and hit 35 winners to 19 in a deserved victory.
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