Your ranking as of June 9, 2008 determines your eligibility for Direct Acceptance into the singles and doubles draws. The men's and women's singles draws will each have 64 players; the men's and women's doubles, 32 teams. No mixed doubles event wilt be played. The maximum number of competitors allowed will be 172, forcing some overlap between singles and doubles competitors.
Each nation is allowed to send a maximum of six players to occupy a maximum of four spots in each singles draw and two spots in each doubles draw. Typically, the national tennis association decides how to choose its players, within the eligibility requirements stated above. In the US, for example, the USTA appoints one coach each for the men's and women's teams, and the coach then chooses the players.
For WTA Tour players, 56 Direct Acceptance spots will be available in the 64-player singles draw. The number of singles players a nation can send will be determined by how many players it has among the 56 highest ranked, eligible players in the world. A nation can also nominate one doubles team for Direct Acceptance if it has at least one player with a top-ten world doubles ranking.
For the eight remaining spots in the women's singles draw, six will be filled by the ITF’s Olympic Committee, and two will gain entry through Tripartite Commission Invitations granted by the ITF, IOC, and national Olympic committees. In addition to rankings, a major consideration in filling these eight spots will be greater geographic diversity.
The ATP and ITF have not yet finalized an agreement, but the men's player selections should be similar to that for the women.
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