It was a little tough to follow tennis at the Sydney Olympic Games. With tennis tournaments being contested nearly every week of the year, when the world's attention turns to Olympic a sport like tennis tends to be swept aside into a television wasteland. On the men's side, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Tommy Haas saved their relatively unspectacular seasons with their gold and silver medals respectively while France's Arnaud Di Pasquale surprised almost everyone with a his bronze medal. Not unlike the rest of the year, the women were the true stories. This week's edition of "The Line Judge" takes a look at two of the women medalists and one who suffered the cruelest blow of any Olympic competition -- fourth place.

Olympic "Lines":

"I guess I've graduated to a different level where I can be like some of the greats."
-- Venus Williams on 2 gold medals

Venus Williams's two gold medals at the Sydney Olympics have capped off the most impressive run in women's tennis since Martina Hingis's 1997 season. Since Wimbledon, Williams has not lost a match and has compiled a 32-match win streak. The only players to match that feat are Navratilova, Evert, Graf, Seles, and Hingis. In addition, the word "history" was thrown around quite a bit in regards to the Games. The only problem at this time is that there is very little Olympic tennis history to top. Tennis took a long break from the Olympics until its reinstatement in 1988. But with the media's fixation on record-breaking achievements it is no surprise that much has been made of Williams's successful trip Down Under. Williams becomes only the second woman to win tennis gold medals in both singles and doubles. The first was Helen Wills Moody in 1924. American coach, Billie Jean King, apparently tried to prep Williams for the potential media questions regarding this accomplishment. Predictably the press did bring it up, to which Williams responded: "Quite a lady, pretty attractive. She won quite a few championships." Probably not what King had in mind, but typical Williams fare of wanting to make history, not study it. Other feats include Williams being the first player since Graf in 1988 to win Wimbledon, the US Open, and an Olympic gold medal in the same year and Venus and Serena being the first sisters to win the gold in doubles. As a side note, the siblings are currently on their own 22-match win streak. After missing the first five months of the season, not even Williams herself probably dreamed that this kind of year was possible or probable. The last three months have been a graduation of sorts and turned incredibly transformed her past boastfulness into truthfulness these days.

"I don't mind the attention as long as it doesn't interfere with my tennis."
-- Elena Dementieve on her rising profile

If given a multiple-choice test, I would gather that most would not mistake which blond Russian teenager uttered the above quote. They may be from the same country, the same age and share a hair color, but that is apparently where the similarities end between Elena Dementieva and Anna Kournikova. While Kournikova is off in Luxembourg this week trying to win her first Tour title, Dementieva followed up her US Open semifinal result with a career high achievement, winning the Olympic silver medal. Not unlike Venus Williams, Dementieva's year could be considered a "breakthrough." Likewise, it is not unrealistic that Dementieva will soon become the top ranked Russian woman on the WTA Tour, a distinction that Kournikova has held for the past several years. Whether Dementieva's Olympic performance will provide the Russian with further inspiration remains to be seen. However, her trip to the medal podium almost did not happen. Dementieva's mother suggested that she take a break from the tour after getting deep into the US Open draw. Undeterred, the 18-year old convinced her mother of the importance of competing in the Games and promised a medal in return. Mission accomplished. Despite fulfilling a personal and professional goal, her performance also assured her instant stardom in her home country. Russian newspapers now turned their attention to "Elena the Beautiful." As she said, she does not mind the attention, but as far as competing with her much-publicized countrywoman it will, in all likelihood, remain only on the tennis court.

"I don't want to play for Australia again."
-- Jelena Dokic reflecting on her Olympic experience

One would think that the Olympics would have been a good experience for Jelena Dokic. The hometown girl nearly made good advancing to the semifinals but falling short of a bronze medal to Monica Seles. But, dear reader, when has any major tournament appearance by the young Australian ended happily ever after? So, we add yet another chapter to the unseemly Dokic family saga. After making the Australian Tennis Federation jump through hoops for her prior to the Olympics, Dokic is now vowing never to play for her country again. The culprit, once again, is her controversial father who remains under intense scrutiny from the media. Following a six-month ban from the WTA Tour (predicted in this column not too long ago -- however, Mr. Ed also predicts the sun will set in the west tonight), Damir Dokic was denied official coaching accreditation for the Sydney Games. While one can not criticize the teenager's loyalty to her family, one has little sympathy for Damir Dokic's continuing bad behavior that led to these bans. Mr. Dokic stated he intended to go to the Yugoslav embassy (Yugoslavia is the family's ancestral homeland) to get new passports for the family. A new home "country" will be decided in the near future -- so, in other words, another typical Dokic cliffhanger. Wherever the Dokic family decides to call home, my advice is that they do one simple thing -- stop reading the papers and just take a long look into a mirror.