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Nadal, Federer Advance In Singles, Doubles

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The Associated Press

Published: August 12, 2008

BEIJING - Rafael Nadal took the court at 10:30 a.m. and hit his final shot more than 11 hours later. Roger Federer's first day of Olympic tennis was slightly shorter but just as successful.

The two rivals, both bidding to become Olympic medalists for the first time, were winners in singles and doubles in the opening round Monday.

Playing the first match on center court, Nadal overcame numerous missed chances by sweeping the final four games to beat Potito Starace of Italy 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

The top-seeded Federer made his entrance less than an hour later. He beat Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-2, then received congratulations from one of the spectators, U.S. basketball star LeBron James.

Next came doubles.

Federer leaped to whack an overhead slam on match point, sealing his win with Swiss teammate Stanislas Wawrinka over Simone Bolelli and Andreas Seppi of Italy, 7-5, 6-1.

A little later, Spaniards Nadal and Tommy Robredo beat Jonas Bjorkman and Robin Soderling of Sweden 6-3, 6-3.

Other singles winners included Venus and Serena Williams, along with Novak Djokovic, the biggest impediment to a Nadal-Federer final in singles.

No. 7 seed Venus Williams, playing her first match since winning Wimbledon for the fifth time, beat Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky 6-3, 6-2. Williams, who swept the gold medals in singles and doubles in 2000, showed no sign of the knee injury that sidelined her in recent weeks.

Her sister Serena, seeded fourth, won all four games when her match resumed after an overnight rain interruption, and she beat Olga Govortsova of Belarus, 6-3, 6-1.

Like Nadal, Serena Williams was playing her first singles match at the Olympics. She won a gold medal in doubles in 2000 with sister Venus.

"It's a great thing going out there playing for your country," Serena said.

The No. 3-seeded Djokovic beat Robby Ginepri of the United States 6-4, 6-4. American Sam Querrey lost to Igor Andreev of Russia 6-4, 6-4, leaving James Blake as the only U.S. male to reach the second round of singles.

Blake and Querrey were eliminated in doubles by Andreev and Nikolay Davydenko, 6-3, 6-4.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: The U.S. women's team quickly dashed any hopes China had of an upset, avenging a loss in April with the second American drubbing of the Chinese in as many nights.

Tina Thompson scored 13 of her 27 points during a 23-0 run in the first quarter and the U.S. routed China 108-63, taking the boisterous crowd out of the game early.

China figured to be the toughest test for the Americans in their pool. Up next will be a matchup with Mali (0-2).

SAILING: In the Finn, 31-year-old British veteran Ben Ainslie, with two gold and one silver Olympic medals, regained first place in the standings after six races from Clearwater's Zach Railey, who ended the day second overall. Ainslie took a first and a tenth, while Railey, coming off double second places Sunday, finished seventh and eighth before heading into a rest day with his arriving parents today.

"Two more days of racing and hopefully the medal race, if everything goes well. I feel fine with the position I'm in," said Railey, who was No. 28 at the worlds. He said shifting winds made conditions difficult, and that only one or two Finn sailors managed two placings in the top five.

In men's windsurfer RS:X, Ben Barger is in 22nd place after the first two rounds. Barger finished 21st in the first race and 22nd in the second.

SHOOTING: Satu Makela-Nummela of Finland won the gold medal in women's trap shooting, hitting 21 targets in the finals to set an Olympic record.

Zuzana Stefecekova of Slovakia, who was tied for the lead with Makela-Nummela entering the finals, took the silver.

Four shooters qualified for a shoot-off for the bronze medal. Daina Gudzineviciute of Lithuania, Elena Struchaeva of Kazakhstan and Japan's Yukie Nakayama missed before American Corey Cogdell hit the target to nab third place.

Cogdell was the youngest shooter in the finals at 21 years old. She entered the finals one off the lead, struggled early but finished strong to force the shootout. It was a good performance from the Alaskan who finished 50th at the 2007 World Championships.

VOLLEYBALL: The U.S. women, playing in their second match of an emotionally draining Olympics, fell to Cuba in three sets.

Cuba, ranked third in the world, overpowered the U.S. women 25-15, 26-24, 25-17 and went up 2-0 in preliminary round play. The U.S. women were even at 1-1.

USA Volleyball was reeling from the stabbing death of Todd Bachman, father of former Olympian Elisabeth Bachman McCutcheon and father-in-law of the U.S. men's coach.

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