The International Tennis Federation has released a 140-page publication called "Journey to Beijing – Tennis celebrates the Olympics" to promote the 2008 Beijing Olympic Tennis Event. Read more »

Top-ranked women’s tennis player Justine Henin is concerned about pollution levels in Beijing, the host city of the 2008 Olympic Games. The Belgian has breathing problems and she fears that high pollution in the Chinese capital might prevent her from taking part in the Olympics.

Because of her asthma, Henin has already withdrawn from one tournament organized in Beijing.

The level of air pollution in Beijing and its possible effects on athletes' health has been one of the biggest issues facing organizers of next year's Olympics. They, however, claim that everything will be fine by the time of the Games.

Henin said that she was hopeful the conditions would improve enough to allow her to take part in the Olympics to defend the gold medal she won in 2004 in Athens.

"It's true that Beijing is going to be tough at the Olympic Games with the problem I have but now it seems that everything is under control which is important because the Olympic Games are a very important goal for me in 2008," she said. (source: Reuters)

The tennis stadium for the Beijing 2008 Olympics is all set up and we’re only 316 days away from the huge sports event.

All over Beijing you can see cute little cartoon mascots. They are called “fuwa”, which is literally translated as “good luck dolls”. There are five types of these mascots, and each kind represents a different element of the natural world. They draw their individual colors from the Olympic rings.

Tennis is being represented by Yingying, the earthy yellow male figure, depicting health. Its animal is the Tibetan antelope.

Check out the other mascots too, they are sooo cute. I really like this Chinese style. (via Off the Baseline)

The tennis venue for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is under construction, and it has been announced that a DecoTurf surface will be used. DecoTurf is the same hardcourt surface used at the US Open.

The Olympic tennis tournament takes place from August 10-17 next year. The US Open, the year's final Grand Slam event, starts on August 25. (via Sporting Life)