Federer, Nadal win Olympic openers; Williams sisters advance

Beijing, China (Sports Network) – Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the men’s top two seeds at the Olympics, advanced to the second round with victories on Monday.

The Swiss Federer beat Russian Dmitry Tursunov, 6-4, 6-2, while the second- seeded Spaniard Nadal was tested in a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Italian Potito Starace in a match that lasted 2 hours, 15 minutes.

“It’s the one (tournament) I base my year around so I hope I can play well here,” said Federer. “It would mean as much as winning a Grand Slam. I’ve won so many Grand Slams and the Olympics only comes around every four years. I love playing for my country so this is a great start.”

It was the Olympic singles debut for Nadal, who is poised to replace Federer as the No.1 ranked player in the world on Aug. 18.

Next up for Nadal will be Australian Lleyton Hewitt, a 7-5, 7-6 (7-2) winner over Swede Jonas Bjorkman. Hewitt is currently ranked 37th in the world, but owns a 4-3 lifetime edge on Nadal. The Aussie has dropped the last two encounters.

“For sure he’s one of the best players in the world,” said Nadal of Hewitt. “But he is not playing all the time. So for that reason his ranking is not in the top positions.”

Federer’s next opponent will be Rafael Arevalo of El Salvador, the 447th- ranked player in the world.

In her Olympic singles debut, American Serena Williams defeated Olga Govortsova of Belarus, 6-3, 6-1. The match was suspended Sunday due to rain with Williams leading 6-3, 2-1.

Williams’ next opponent will be Samantha Stosur of Australia, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Sara Errani of Italy in opening-round play.

The fourth-seeded Williams was upset that she was forced to play Monday when a couple of matches that were interrupted by rain Sunday finished.

“It was unwarranted,” she said. “I felt like I should have today off, but it was a good practice. I wanted to go to the market today, but we have to play so many matches, 14 matches (singles and doubles) in six days, so it’s tough.”

Venus Williams began her bid for a third Olympic gold medal with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland. Serena’s older sister, the double gold medalist from the Sydney Games in 2000, played her first match since winning her fifth Wimbledon title in July. The seventh seed had been out with a right knee injury.

Monday’s schedule was inundated due to the intense thunderstorms from a day earlier when only nine matches were completed.

Second seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia earned a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Zimbabwe’s Cara Black. Third-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova lost to China’s Li Na, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, but fifth-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva advanced.

Russian Dinara Safina, the sixth seed, also advanced with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-1) victory over Italy’s Mara Santangelo.

Nicolas Massu of Chile, who won the gold medal in both singles and doubles in Athens, topped Steve Darcis of Belgium 6-4, 7-5.

There were two big upsets as fifth seed David Ferrer of Spain lost to Serb Janko Tipsarevic, 7-6 (10-8), 6-2, and Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun beat sixth-seed Andy Murray from Great Britain, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

Argentine David Nalbandian, the seventh seed, beat China’s Zeng Shaoxuan, 6-2, 6-1.

James Blake is the lone male American left in the field after Robby Ginepri and Sam Querrey both lost. Ginepri was beaten by third seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia, 6-4, 6-4, while Querrey was a 6-4, 6-4 loser to Russian Igor Andreev.

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