Daniel Nestor's defence of his gold medal could be short and not so sweet.

The draw in doubles tennis seems unfriendly for Nestor and his less-heralded partner, Frederic Niemeyer, who are on a collision course that could result in second-round elimination from the Olympic tournament here in Athens.

Assuming they win their opening-round match, Nestor and Niemeyer would oppose one of the best teams in the world.

TOUGH DRAW

"Ideally, it would have been nice to have a first round or two to get to work your way through the draw and get your confidence going," Canadian coach Martin Laurendeau said, speaking before the draw was announced.

If the draw keeps to form, the Canadians will play the third-seeded French team of Fabrice Santoro and Michael Llondra. A win by Nestor and Niemeyer would be considered a significant upset.

"Playing with Daniel, the expectation is obviously a little higher," Niemeyer, in his first Olympics, said. "If we win, it's because of Daniel, and if we lose, everything is going to be because of me."

Niemeyer has some reason to feel more heat. The numbers tell you that much. Nestor is the sixth-ranked doubles player in the world and coming off a Masters Series victory in Cincinnati. Niemeyer, with a big league serve and not much else, is ranked 424th in doubles.

"The thing with Daniel is, he's a big-game guy," Laurendeau said. "He always plays well for Canada. And after winning in Cincinnati, he's coming in here pretty confident.

"Frederic is known on the tour for his serve. Everyone knows about his serve. Because of his serve, he doesn't give much rhythm to the other guys. That's his strength."

Nestor, who wasn't predicted for gold in Sydney yet beat the home country favourites, Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, in the final, can never be completely counted out because of his history of international success.

"We're getting a lot of attention because we won last time," Nestor said. "It's a little tough on Fred. He's not used to this on a weekly basis. A lot of teams that normally don't play together have come together to prepare for the Olympics. There are a lot of teams under pressure. I don't feel any pressure.

"The way Fred and I play, we both serve well. We're a dangerous team. If we serve well, anything can happen."

In yesterday's draw, defending singles gold medallist Venus Williams and top-ranked Justine Henin-Hardenne could face each other in the quarter-finals.

Williams, seeded sixth after a year of injury problems, will open against wild-card entry Melinda Czink, a Czech ranked 103rd.

Henin-Hardenne -- coming off a viral infection and sidelined since a second-round loss at the French Open -- also begins against a Czech player, 66th-ranked Barbora Strycova.

The No. 1 man, Roger Federer, was drawn to face Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, while No. 2 Andy Roddick starts against Flavio Saretta of Brazil.