Federer cruises through
Roger Federer eased into the last 16 of the Olympic tennis tournament with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Julien Benneteau.
Last Updated: 30/07/12 11:10pm
World number one Roger Federer eased into the last 16 of the men's singles Olympic tennis tournament with a 6-2 6-2 victory over France's Julien Benneteau.
The pair met in the third round of Wimbledon last month when Benneteau almost pulled off a huge shock as he led Federer by two sets to love before the Swiss star turned things around.
But Federer had no such trouble at the All England Club this time around as he cruised to victory against his French opponent.
Eleventh-seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro joined Federer in the third round with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Alex Bogomolov Jr.
Elsewhere at Wimbledon, Andy Roddick came through a tight first round clash with Slovakia's Martin Klizan 7-5 6-4 while another veteran, Australia's Lleyton Hewitt, dug out a 6-3 4-6 6-3 victory over Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky.
There were also wins for Juan Monaco, Marin Cilic, and Richard Gasquet in the first round, while Juan Martin del Potro claimed a second round win.
Women
In the women's singles tournament, Serena and Venus Williams claimed straightforward victories but world number one Victoria Azarenka was taken to three sets by Romania's Irina-Camelia Begu.
Azarenka briefly looked in trouble when she lost the second set of her opening match and then went down an early break in the decider, but she promptly reeled off six games in a row to win 6-1 3-6 6-1.
Venus Williams was also in first round action and made quick work of her clash with ninth seed and French Open finalist Sara Errani, the American cruising to a 6-3 6-1 win.
Serena played her first round match on Saturday and wasted no time reaching the third round on Monday, seeing off Poland's Urszula Radwanska 6-2 6-3.
In the last 16, Serena will meet 13th-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva, the bronze medallist from Beijing, after she saw off Italy's Francesca Schiavone 6-3 6-3.
Back in the first round, there were also wins for Germany's Sabine Lisicki and Russians Nadia Petrova and Maria Kirilenko.
Doubles
Meanwhile Federer and Wawrinka opened their doubles defence with victory over Japan's Kei Nishikori and Go Soeda, but the sixth seeds had to come from a set down to win 6-7 (5/7) 6-4 6-4.
There was disappointment for Novak Djokovic, though, as he and Serbian partner Viktor Troicki were beaten 7-6 (10/8) 6-3 by Swedes Johan Brunstrom and Robert Lindstedt.
Djokovic and Roddick will do battle on Centre Court in singles action on Tuesday while elsewhere fourth seed David Ferrer takes on Kavcic and Raonic meets fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a battle of the big hitters.