Keothavong and Baltacha receive Olympic wild cards

ANNE Keothavong and Elena Baltacha have been given wild cards to represent Great Britain in singles at the Olympics while Laura Robson and Heather Watson will compete in the doubles.

No British women qualified by ranking for the tournament, which will be played at Wimbledon, but the LTA was hopeful host-nation status would see them looked upon favourably by the International Tennis Federation, which decide the wild cards. That has turned out to be the case, with Keothavong and Baltacha receiving two of the six available in the women’s singles.

Only Andy Murray, whose place was confirmed last week, will compete in the men’s singles for the hosts but Murray and his brother Jamie plus Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins have qualified directly for the men’s doubles.