The United States' Venus Williams defeated Russia's Elena Dementieva in the final, 6–2, 6–4 to win the gold medal in Women's Singles tennis at the 2000 Summer Olympics. In the bronze medal match, the United States' Monica Seles defeated Australia's Jelena Dokic, 6–1, 6–4. Williams' victory was the third consecutive gold medal in the women's singles for the United States, all by different players (preceded by Jennifer Capriati and Lindsay Davenport).

The tournament was held at the Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre in Sydney, Australia from 19 September until 28 September. There were 64 competitors from 33 nations, with each nation having up to 3 players.

The United States' Davenport was the defending gold medalist from 1996, but she withdrew from her second round match due to injury.

Background This was the ninth appearance of the women's singles tennis. A women's event was held only once during the first three Games (only men's tennis was played in 1896 and 1904), but has been held at every Olympics for which there was a tennis tournament since 1908. Tennis was not a medal sport from 1928 to 1984, though there were demonstration events in 1968 and 1984.

Returning from the 1996 Games were gold medalist Lindsay Davenport of the United States, silver medalist (and 1992 bronze medalist) Arantxa Sánchez Vicario of Spain, and three of the four quarterfinal losers (Conchita Martínez of Spain, Iva Majoli of Croatia, and Monica Seles of the United States). Davenport and Seles were joined by Venus Williams, in the middle of a 35-match and 6-tournament winning streak, as the top 3 seeds in the tournament. Sánchez Vicario and Martínez were 4th and 5th; Spain and the United States were favourites.

Colombia, Haiti, Paraguay, Slovenia, Thailand, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela each made their debut in the event. France made its eighth appearance, most among nations to that point, having missed only the 1908 Games in London (when only British players competed).

Competition format The competition was a single-elimination tournament with a bronze medal match. Matches were all best-of-three sets. The 12-point tie-breaker was used in any set, except the third, that reached 6–6.

Schedule All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)

Date Time Round Tuesday, 19 September 2000Wednesday, 20 September 2000 11:00 Round of 64 Thursday, 21 September 2000 11:00 Round of 32 Friday, 22 September 2000Saturday, 23 September 2000 11:00 Round of 16 Sunday, 24 September 2000 11:45 Quarterfinals Tuesday, 25 September 2000 11:00 Semifinals Thursday, 26 September 2000 11:00 Bronze medal match Friday, 27 September 2000 11:00 Final

Seeds

Competitors AthleteNation Lindsay Davenport Paola Suárez Rossana de los Ríos Květa Peschke Rita Grande Sylvia Pilschke Jelena Dokic Ai Sugiyama Sabine Appelmans Sonya Jeyaseelan Amanda Hopmans María Vento-Kabchi Anne Kremer Iva Majoli Rita Kuti-Kis Amanda Coetzer Conchita Martínez Petra Mandula Katarina Srebotnik Karina Habšudová Iroda Tulyaganova Kristie Boogert Mirka Vavrinec Elena Dementieva Barbara Schett Alicia Molik Natasha Zvereva María Emilia Salerni Yi Jing-Qian Dája Bedáňová Tathiana Garbin Julie Halard-Decugis Dominique Monami Adriana Gerši Eleni Daniilidou Anastasia Myskina Cara Black Silvia Farina Elia Neyssa Etienne Silvija Tajaja Nathalie Dechy Magüi Serna Ruxandra Dragomir Nicole Pratt Miriam Oremans Florencia Labat Katalin Marosi Monica Seles Arantxa Sánchez Vicario Li Na Patricia Wartusch Olga Barabanschikova Shinobu Asagoe Els Callens Fabiola Zuluaga Amélie Mauresmo Elena Likhovtseva Jana Kandarr Wynne Prakusya Emmanuelle Gagliardi Tina Pisnik Tamarine Tanasugarn Henrieta Nagyová Venus Williams

Draw

Key

INV = Tripartite invitation IP = ITF place Alt = Alternate r = Retired w/o = Walkover

Finals

Top half

Section 1

Section 2

Bottom half

Section 3

Section 4

References

Drawsheet from the ITF Olympic site