Milos Raonic looks to serve up a medal at London Olympics

On Tuesday, Rafael Nadal complained about the Olympic plan to play three-set matches on the hallowed courts of Wimbledon rather than the five-set matches players are accustomed to at Grand Slam tournaments.

"That's what makes the tournament a little bit more crazy" he told AFP. "Everybody can win even more than on hard or clay, because playing best of three sets, the match can be decided in just a few points… it is a little bit more difficult to predict what's going to happen."

That unpredictability plays right into the hand of Milos Raonic, Canada's best medal hopeful in the men's singles event. Raonic, playing in his first Olympics, has one of the hardest serves on the tour and the presence of hard-hitting players like him could be what has Nadal worried.

A strong service game is very difficult to counter on grass. The natural uneven surface leads to bad bounces, demanding increased concentration and shorter reaction time. When Raonic is firing a 155mph serve in your direction and that ball takes an unexpected hop, you're dead in the water… or rather, grass. And remember, the start of the tennis events at the Olympics happens just 20 days after Wimbledon wraps up, giving the grounds crew at the All England Club very little time to repair the courts. Head groundsman Eddie Seaward has spent the last two years experimenting and preparing for the most important three weeks of his 20-year tenure tending the lawns of Wimbledon. So don't expect the grass to resemble a little league baseball diamond full of potholes and divots, but don't expect it to be in its usual pristine Wimbledon form either.

[Related: Milos Raonic is hip to a better Wimbledon result]

Raonic won't be alone during the Olympics, nor is he alone at Wimbledon. Five Canadians entered the main draw at Wimbledon with the same five joining him for the London Olympics. Aleksandra Wozniack, Stéphanie Dubois, Vasek Pospisil and Daniel Nestor will all be representing Canada at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Dubois may have lost her opening round match against Jie Zheng, denying the nation an all-Canadian second round matchup with Wozniak, who dispatched Vera Dushevina in straight sets, but she did receive some great news later in the day. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) released the entries for the Olympics, and on the list was Dubois who was previously not nominated by Tennis Canada to compete in London. Pospisil, who lost his opening round match at Wimbledon to Sam Querrey, was expected to only compete in men's doubles with Nestor, will now join Raonic in the men's singles draw as well.

Speaking of Raonic, his match against Santiago Giraldo was suspended due to rain with the hotshot Canadian up 5-4 in the third set after taking the first two 6-4, 6-4. And Nestor, along with partner Max Mirnyi, looked shaky at first dropping the first set 6-4 to Americans Michael Russell and Donald Young before taking the next three easily 6-0, 6-2, 6-1.