Federer, Williams sisters in golden form

Olympic GamesMen’s singles results Davydenko bt Štěpánek 6-4, 6-3Baghdatis bt Soeda 6-7, 7-6, 6-2Mónaco     bt Goffin 6-4, 6-1

Wednesday, August 01, 2012
Serena Williams advanced to the third round with a straight-sets win over Urszula Radwanska. Net photo.

Olympic GamesMen’s singles results Davydenko bt Štěpánek 6-4, 6-3Baghdatis bt Soeda 6-7, 7-6, 6-2Mónaco     bt Goffin 6-4, 6-1Gasquet bt Haase 6-3, 6-3Cilic bt Melzer 7-6, 6-2Hewitt bt Stakhovsky 6-3, 4-6, 6-3Simon bt Dimitrov 6-3, 6-3Women’s singlesPetrova bt Zheng 6-4, 7-6Wozniak bt Erakovic 6-2, 6-1Clijsters     bt Suárez 6-3, 6-3Wozniacki bt Wickmayer 6-4, 3-6, 6-3Zvonareva bt Schiavone 6-3, 6-3Hantuchová bt Cornet 6-3, 6-0Ivanovic bt Baltacha 6-4, 7-6LONDON – Roger Federer underlined his desire to win Olympic singles gold with a demolition of Julien Benneteau Monday, while Serena and Venus Williams followed his example with equally dominant displays.Federer and the Williams sisters have a remarkable 17 Wimbledon singles titles and 38 grand slam crowns between them in their illustrious careers, and the trio showed their class as they marched into the last 16.World number one Federer needed three sets to win his first match against Alejandro Falla, but the newly re-crowned Wimbledon champion took the express route Monday with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over France’s Benneteau in just 58 minutes.Serena, who like Federer is aiming to follow her latest Wimbledon success with a first singles gold medal, swept through to the last 16 with a 6-2, 6-3 victory against Urszula Radwanska.And Venus, a singles gold medallist at the Sydney Games in 2000, demolished Italian ninth seed Sara Errani 6-3, 6-1 in a first round match rescheduled due to Sunday’s heavy rain.Serena finished with eight aces and 26 winners in her one hour and 13 minute victory and she will now play Russia’s Vera Zvonareva, whom she beat in the 2010 Wimbledon final, in the last 16.Elsewhere on Monday, three-time Wimbledon runner-up Andy Roddick defeated Slovakia’s Martin Klizan 7-5, 6-4 to set up a second round clash with Serbian second seed Novak Djokovic.Women’s world number one Victoria Azarenka also advanced to the last 32 with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu.