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."

Naomi Osaka is less likely to claim Olympics glory on home soil in Tokyo because her lack of match practice will be a disadvantage, according to Pat Cash.

Japan's Osaka has not played since withdrawing from the French Open after one match at the end of May, having revealed she would skip press conferences as "people have no regard for athletes' mental health".

Prior to taking a break from the sport, four-time grand slam champion Osaka revealed she had suffered "long bouts of depression" since winning the US Open in 2018.

The 23-year-old said this month she wants "some level of privacy and empathy" from the media when she returns to action and but also discussed her excitement at playing in a "dream" Olympics.

Former Wimbledon champion Cash insists Osaka has the game to triumph but feels it is a tougher task now given her main opponents are coming off two grand slams in quick succession.

"Yeah, she said [she was taking] time out – it's hard to know if she's going to be match hardened," Cash said to Stats Perform.

"I think that's the thing about playing Wimbledon, the grass court season. Are you match toughened? 

"That goes a huge, huge way [to achieving success, and not having that] is putting yourself under pressure and especially under those circumstances if it's for a gold medal."

Cash feels the quality and depth of opposition in the women's draw is another obstacle in Osaka's bid for gold.

Wimbledon winner Ash Barty, beaten finalist Karolina Pliskova, former French Open champion Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka are scheduled to be among the highest-ranked competitors for Osaka at the Olympics.

Cash added: "There are a lot of good players too. Going back onto the hard court, I think that favours certain players who hit the ball hard like Sabalenka for instance.

"But there's 30 girls who really do think they can win a gold medal there and I think that's true. 

"So it's very hard to predict who will win, obviously Japan want Osaka to win, but with her being out, I think it's less likely than in a normal circumstance where she's playing matches. 

"But she's such a talent that she really could come out there and blast players away, so I wouldn't put it past her."

Yulia Putintseva was in devastating form as she crushed Anhelina Kalinina to win the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest, her second career singles title.

She needed just 70 minutes to thrash Kalinina 6-4 6-0 and seal a first WTA Tour triumph since 2019 when she was victorious in Nurnberg.

In fact, her semi-final appearance in Budapest was Putintseva's first since that success in Germany, and she rarely looked like passing up the chance for victory against her Ukrainian opponent.

Kalinina was as much her own worst enemy at times, with 34 unforced errors continuously handing the initiative to the ruthless Putintseva, who converted five of eight break points.

Two of those breaks came in the first three games of the match, and although Kalinina hit back initially, she could not sustain that form as Putintseva closed out the set.

The second set was far more one-sided, as Kalinina took just seven points across the six games, which were all won by Putintseva.

The Kazakh now turns her attention towards the Olympics.

Tamara Zidansek recovered from a set and early break down to beat Clara Burel and win her first WTA singles title at the Ladies Open Lausanne.

The Slovenian had lost her previous two finals, including at the Copa Colsanitas in April, but she lived up to her top-seed billing on Sunday by beating Burel 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-1.

Burel had eliminated second and fifth seeds Fiona Ferro and Caroline Garcia en route to her first final and made a fast start by breaking Zidansek twice in the first three games.

Former junior world number one Burel was in control at 4-0 up and saw the job through in the first set, despite Zidansek pulling it back to 5-4 at one point, with a backhand winner.

Zidansek was a break down in the second set when beginning her impressive comeback, which saw the French Open semi-finalist take four of the next five games.

But Burel continued to match her opponent as the second set went to a tie-break, with Zidansek recovering from 4-2 down to take it 7-5 and level up the contest.

World number 50 Zidansek took control from that point and eased to victory in the third set with three breaks, clinching her maiden title when Burel miscued a backhand.

Barbora Krejcikova won the Prague Open on Sunday with a comfortable win in straight sets against Tereza Martincova.

World number 13 and tournament second seed Krejcikova eased to a 6-2 6-0 win over her Czech compatriot Martincova in one hour and five minutes.

The win was the French Open champion Krejcikova's first on hard courts and came courtesy of 26 winners across the 14 games.

At 2-2 in the first set Krejcikova secured a break against the world number 78 and from that point never looked back.

Krejcikova has now chalked up an impressive 20 wins from her last 21 matches.

The 25-year-old's solitary loss in that time was in the fourth round of Wimbledon at the hands of eventual champion, and world number one, Ashleigh Barty.

In-form second seed Barbora Krejcikova saw off Wang Xinyu in straight sets on Saturday to set up an all-Czech final with Tereza Martincova on home soil at the Prague Open.

French Open champion Krejcikova needed just one hour and nine minutes to overcome Wang 6-1 6-2 and reach her third final in four tournaments.

Krejcikova controlled the match from the off, on her way to a routine win, with the world number 13 having still yet to drop a single set in the Czech capital.

Martincova had earlier been made to work a little harder for her victory over Greet Minnen, but the number eight seed advanced through to Sunday's final with a 6-3 6-4 win.

The 26-year-old let slip a 4-1 lead in the second set as Minnen pulled it back to 4-4, before taking her second match point with a strong forehand.

At the Lausanne Open, a new singles champion on the WTA Tour will be crowned on Sunday when Tamara Zidansek and Clara Burel face off.

Zidansek proved too strong for semi-final debutant Maryna Zanevska, prevailing 7-5 6-3, while Burel needed to dig deep to get the better of fifth seed Caroline Garcia.

Burel, who unlike Zidansek has never previously reached a WTA singles final at all, was a set and a break down to Garcia but recovered to take the match the distance.

The 20-year-old called a medical timeout in the decider, though she managed to put that behind her as she earned three breaks of serve to stun her French compatriot 5-7 6-2 6-2.

Elsewhere on Saturday, home favourite Dalma Galfi's tournament was brought to an end at the semi-final stage of the Hungarian Grand Prix with a 6-2 3-6 6-2 defeat to top seed Yulia Putintseva.

Wildcard entrant Galfi offered little in the first set to suggest she would push Putintseva all the way, but she did exactly that with a couple of breaks of serve in the second set.

However, Putintseva, looking to add to her only previous singles title at the 2019 Nuremberg Cup, stormed into a 5-1 lead in the deciding set and ended Galfi's hopes with her first match point.

The Russian will next take on Anhelina Kalinina, who led 6-7 (7-5) 4-1 against Danielle Collins in the other semi-final when her opponent withdrew injured.

French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova marched through to the Prague Open semi-finals following a straight-sets victory over doubles partner Katerina Siniakova.

The in-form second seed has six titles to her name this season; three of which have come alongside Siniakova in doubles events.

Together, they have triumphed at Roland Garros – adding to Krejcikova’s singles success – as well as in Madrid and the Gippsland Trophy.

However, this was their first singles meeting at Tour level, which went with the form book as Krejcikova claimed her 18th win in 19 matches after comfortably prevailing 6-3 6-0.

The home favourite, who is still to drop a set in the Czech capital, will play Wang Xinyu in the semi-finals after the world number 147 beat Grace Min 6-3 6-3.

French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova continued her impressive form as she advanced to the Prague Open quarter-finals following a straight-sets victory over Ysaline Bonaventure.

The second seed has now won 17 of her last 18 matches, having also triumphed in Strasbourg prior to her maiden Grand Slam title at Roland Garros last month.

The Czech is also yet to drop a set in her home event after a 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 success over world number 127 Bonaventure.

Krejcikova set up a clash with doubles partner Katerina Siniakova in the quarter-finals.

After her showdown with Tereza Smitkova was suspended during their final set on Wednesday, the fifth seed wasted no time in wrapping up a 2-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 win.

Angelique Kerber will not be going for gold for Germany at the Tokyo Olympics, with the three-time grand slam winner withdrawing on Thursday.

One week on from losing to Ash Barty in the Wimbledon semi-finals, Kerber said it was "disappointing" to pull out of the Games.

The former Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open champion said in a statement: "The thought of participating at the Olympics has been a constant motivation for me over the past months to push further and keep believing in my goals.

"Representing Germany in London 2012 and Rio 2016 as part of the German team has always been one of my favourite memories of my career so far.

"This makes it even more disappointing for me to accept the fact that my body needs rest after the intense few weeks that lie behind me and that I have to recover first before returning to competition later this summer!

"Thank you for your support, as this has been a very difficult decision for me. Good luck to all my fellow German athletes in Tokyo #TeamDeutschland, I will miss you."

Kerber reached the Olympic final in Rio in 2016 but suffered a shock defeat in the title match to Monica Puig of Puerto Rico, having to settle for the silver medal.

Her absence this year means the field is further depleted, with Serena Williams, Bianca Andreescu, Simona Halep and Sofia Kenin among the high-profile WTA Tour stars who will be absent in Japan. Puig will also miss out after undergoing shoulder surgery.

The men's line-up has been similarly hit, with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem choosing not to play.

Nina Stojanovic was the highest seed to bow out in round two of the Prague Open on Wednesday, losing in three sets to Grace Min.

The seventh seed – ranked 90th in the world – gave former Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber a scare on her SW19 debut at the end of last month before eventually going down 6-4 6-3.

However, despite 10 aces, the Serbian was unable to build on that momentum in the Czech capital, losing 3-6 6-1 6-4 against world number 181 Min.

Min had not won a WTA Tour main-draw match since January 2020.

French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova made light work of qualifier Isabella Shinikova to start her Prague Open campaign with a win.

Following her triumph in Paris, Krejcikova made it to the round of 16 at Wimbledon only to lose to eventual champion Ash Barty.

Krejcikova will be representing the Czech Republic at the Tokyo Olympics, and is using this home tournament as a warm-up event.

The second seed defeated Shinikova 6-2 6-3 to tee up a second-round tie with Ysaline Bonaventure. With Petra Kvitova already out, Krejcikova will be hoping to seal a third singles title of her career.

Compatriot and fourth seed Marie Bouzkova did not fare well, however, as the fourth seed slumped 3-6 6-4 6-2 to world number 141 Storm Sanders.

Fellow Czechs Katerina Siniakova and Tereza Martincova did progress, beating Jodie Burrage and Samantha Murray Sharan respectively.

While Krejcikova will look to take advantage of a weakened field and prepare for the Olympics in ideal fashion, one player who will not be at the Games is Johanna Konta.

The British number one said on Tuesday she had withdrawn from Tokyo 2020 after testing positive for COVID-19 and seeing her tennis fitness suffer, having also had to pull out of Wimbledon. Konta, who is not in action this week, described the blow as "a heart-breaking reality".

At the Hungarian Grand Prix, third seed Bernarda Pera had to come from behind to beat Julia Grabher – ranked at 201 – 5-7 6-1 6-2.

Pera, who joins a fellow American seed, Danielle Collins, in round two, will next face Anhelina Kalinina.

Irina-Camelia Begu, a finalist in Budapest 10 years ago, will not be making a repeat trip to the title match, the fourth seed losing 6-3 6-4 on Tuesday to Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.

Meanwhile, at the Lausanne Open, fourth seed Camila Giorgi scored a ruthless 6-2 6-0 win over Norway's Ulrikke Eikeri.

Rebecca Sramkova handed number-one seed Petra Kvitova a shock defeat on home soil at the Prague Open to record her first WTA Tour-level win in a main draw since 2017.

The unseeded Slovakian took the first set 7-6 (7-5) before Kvitova bounced back to take the next 6-3. Sramkova, however, battled through injury to win the final set 6-4 and upset the two-time Wimbledon winner.

Seventh seed Nina Stojanovic avoided an early exit as she recovered from a first-set loss to beat Vitalia Diatchenko 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 6-3, while ninth seed Greet Minnen defeated Italian Giulia Gatto-Monticone 6-0 4-6 6-1.

Unlike Kvitova, the top seed at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Yulia Putintseva, cruised past Ekaterine Gorgodze 6-2 6-4 to record a straight-sets first-round win in Budapest.

But Irina-Camelia Begu, the fourth favourite, was not as fortunate as she failed to secure second-round progression, falling 3-6 4-6 to the unseeded Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.

The Hungarian Grand Prix provided more shocks, with Irina Bara knocking out eighth seed Sara Errani courtesy of a 4-6 7-5 6-2 triumph, while seventh seed Viktoriya Tomova crashed out to Paula Ormaechea in straight sets.

On day one of the Ladies Open Lausanne, favourite and 2021 Roland Garros semi-finalist Tamara Zidansek shook off a first-set loss to dispatch of Marina Melnikova 2-6 6-3 6-2 and book her place in the next round.

Meanwhile, second seed Fiona Ferro was leading her French compatriot Harmony Tan 7-5 2-1 before play was suspended for the day in Switzerland.

Elena-Gabriela Ruse claimed the first WTA singles title of her career as she beat Andrea Petkovic in the final of the Hamburg European Open.

Appearing in her maiden tour final, the Romanian qualifier ran out a 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 victor in just over two hours on the German clay.

Petkovic, meanwhile, failed to end a six-year wait for a title spanning back to success at the Antwerp Diamond Games in February 2015.

Only a tie break could separate the two players in nip and tuck first set in Hamburg that saw each player break service once.

And it was 23-year-old Ruse who came out on top, with a second service win percentage of 60.9 to Petkovic's 46.7 across the entire set eventually telling.

The second set was more chaotic, with Petkovic breaking her opponent on two occasions as she attempted to find a way back into the match.

However, the German was broken three times herself, most crucially in the 10th and final game as Ruse claimed it 6-4 to win the WTA 250 event.

Ruse's first tour win is sure to provide a boost to her current WTA ranking of 198, 68 places below her opponent in Sunday's final.

An impressive run to the final also saw her beat top seed Dayana Yastremska and American Danielle Collins.

The wobbles of Wimbledon struck Karolina Pliskova and Ash Barty in a women's final that delivered devilish drama and a marvellously charismatic new champion.

Barty's big moment at the All England Club has finally arrived, the world number one making good on the aim she publicly set herself by landing the second grand slam of a career that could yield many more.

As she joyfully paraded the Venus Rosewater Dish around Centre Court, it hardly mattered that the 25-year-old had staggered across the winning line.

When she raced up to the players' box to hug coach Craig Tyzzer and boyfriend Garry Kissick, they were not asking why she had not got the job done in straight sets.

When Barty's thoughts turned to her hero Evonne Goolagong, and tears began to flow, all that mattered to the Queenslander was that she had achieved her tennis destiny.

But what a curious contest this was, a first women's Wimbledon singles final to go to a third set since 2012, yet it would take a real optimist – Barty, for instance – to define it as a classic.

At least it was a contest. That had been in doubt when Pliskova lost the opening 14 points. It was 4-0 in just 12 minutes, at which stage memories of the Czech's 6-0 6-0 drubbing by Iga Swiatek in May's Rome final came to mind.

Pliskova did not fire a single winner in the first six games. Barty surged a set and 3-1 ahead in 45 minutes, a 13th straight-sets women's final in the last 14 Wimbledon championships seemingly inevitable.

The pre-match favourite's nerve was holding, or so it seemed, but when Pliskova held serve to trail only 3-2 the players had split the last 10 games, and that suggested a pivot in the flow of the contest was still possible.

Rudyard Kipling's encouragement to keep your head while others might be losing theirs is engrained in Wimbledon tradition, yet doing so on the big stage is easier prescribed than achieved.

This title match was painfully short on consistent quality, with more unforced errors than winners overall (Barty: 30/29, Pliskova: 27/32) as the pressure of the occasion affected the two first-time finalists. Movie star Tom Cruise was in the crowd, and a plot twist was coming.

A chant of "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" went up at 5-5 in the second set, and Pliskova went on to drop serve from 40-love, missing a straightforward enough backhand volley at the net when she had the chance to close out the game.

Serving for the title, Barty played her worst tennis of the match, and when Pliskova powered through the tie-break those still awake Down Under must have been suddenly fearing the worst.

Serving first in the third set, Barty took a look down the other end and must have been thinking: "What are you still doing here?"

But Barty swiftly established a break, Pliskova volleying lamentably into the net from close range, and this time the Aussie nerve held.

She fired an ace to bring up a first match point and the title was hers when Pliskova drove a backhand into the net, her 32nd unforced error of the match.

Having held serve in 57 of her 61 service games up to the final, Pliskova was broken six times.

Barty won the girls' Wimbledon tournament in 2011 and 10 years later has achieved a rare double by adding the women's title, joining Ann Jones, Martina Hingis and Amelie Mauresmo as the only players to do so in the Open Era.

She has joined Margaret Court and Goolagong in becoming a women's champion for Australia at the All England Club, and Barty holds the latter in the highest regard.

They share an indigenous background, and 50 years after Goolagong landed the first of her two Wimbledon titles, Barty did just enough to fend off Pliskova and add her own name to the board of champions.

Barty called it "an exceptional match right from the start", and that verdict can probably be put down to the adrenaline of being a newly crowned champion.

She also spoke of having managed precious little sleep ahead of the match, which might explain some of the erratic side of her performance.

And then the BBC's Sue Barker asked her about Goolagong.

"I hope I made Evonne proud," Barty said, the first tears beginning to stream.

Barty has left home to pursue this dream, having chosen to spend almost all of 2020 back in Greater Springfield, near Brisbane, away from the world's worst COVID-19 crises.

Her family have remained in Australia, and Barty has made the trip worth it with this triumph.

"I know they're at home watching. I miss them, I love them," Barty said. "I can't wait to get home to them in a few months' time and really celebrate."

She suggested celebrations in her bubble would be "low key". The Barty party will have to wait.

An emotional Ash Barty said she hoped she had done Evonne Goolagong Cawley after realising her dream of winning Wimbledon with a battling defeat of Karolina Pliskova.

The world number one became the first Australian woman to be crowned champion at the All England Club since her mentor Goolagong Cawley 41 years ago with a 6-3 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 victory.

Barty won the opening 14 points of the match as she handled the nerves better than eighth seed Pliskova on Saturday.

Pliskova fought back from a break down twice to win the second set, but the top seed regrouped to claim a second grand slam title two years after her first at the French Open.

The Queensland native is only the fourth junior Wimbledon champion to go on and win the women's title and her triumph came 50 years after Goolagong Cawley's maiden success at SW19.

An emotional Barty said in her on-court interview: "This is incredible. I have to start with Kaja [Pliskova]. Congratulations on an incredible tournament to you and your team. I love testing myself against you and I'm sure we'll have many many matches.

"I want to thank everyone in this stadium. You've made my dream so special, thank you very much.

"My team is incredible and they've been with me every step of the way, and for them to be able to travel with me and essentially be away from home for eight or nine months.

"Craig [her coach Tyzzer] is our captain. He is exceptional at what he does and I love him to death.

"It took me a long time to verbalise, to dare to dream it and say it. I didn't sleep a lot last night, I was thinking of all the what-ifs. I hope I made Evonne proud."

It was a second defeat in a major final for former world number one Pliskova, who was also beaten in the 2016 US Open championship match.