Roger Federer earned top marks in his first Olympics test but Rafael Nadal was made to sweat in a bumper crop of matches at the rain-delayed tennis tournament on Monday. Federer breezed past powerful Russian Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-2 into round two, joining Nadal who was taken the distance by 71st-ranked Italian Potito Starace.
Federer, seeded top as the outgoing number one, is chasing his first Olympic medal after finishing fourth in 2000 and winning only one match four years ago. "I had some great winners and got some good balls back," he said. "I really felt I was playing very solid. That's what I was expecting from myself today and I'm really happy with the result because I knew the danger from Dmitry."
Earlier Nadal saw off the notorious Olympics jinx in an unexpectedly close encounter with the 71st-ranked Starace which ended 6-2, 3-6, 6-2. The French Open and Wimbledon champion broke twice in the first set but was made to sweat when Starace hit back for 2-0 in the second. But the 27-year-old's inspired form deserted him in the decider as he netted at 2-3 for the initial break and again on Nadal's first match point.
"I had a break against in the second set and I had a lot of opportunities to break back but I couldn't, so that was tough," said Nadal. "He had more problems than me when he was serving so that gave me a lot of confidence. Finally I got the break and match."
The Olympics has been a champions' graveyard for the men with no top-five gold-medallist in modern times and a list of winners including Marc Rosset and Nicolas Massu. Meanwhile, Serena Williams was not happy about having to complete her 6-3, 6-1 win against Olga Govortsova on Monday after the rain forced an overnight delay. "It was unwarranted. I felt like I should have today off but it was a good practice," she said.
"And I have the rest of the day off before I play tomorrow. I wanted to go to the market today but we have to play so many matches. It's rough." Some 65 matches were scheduled for Monday after thunderstorms all but wiped out day one, when only nine matches were completed at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre.
Nadal, Federer, Andy Murray and defending champion Nicolas Massu were among those playing both singles and doubles on the same day. Sam Querrey and Igor Andreev play later - and will stay on court to face each other in the doubles immediately afterwards.