The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic GamesAugust 8-24 2008
(BEIJING, August 12) -- Lleyton Hewitt and Chris Guccione of Australia made history on Monday night with their epic Men's Doubles victory, while some big names in the Men's Singles draw made surprise early exits on day two of the Tennis tournament at the Olympic Green Tennis Center.
Men's Singles First Round
The first big upsets of the Olympic Tennis tournament occurred when No. 5 seed David Ferrer of Spain fell to Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia 7-6(8), 6-2, and Lu Yen-hsun of Chinese Taipei upset No. 6 seed Andy Murray of Great Britain 7-6(5), 6-4 in the first Men's Singles round.
There was further bad news for the Spanish Men's team when No. 11 seed Nicolas Almagro and Tommy Robredo also lost in the opening round to Gael Monfils of France and Andreas Seppi of Italy, respectively.
In contrast, the French men were toasting to their success. Michael Llodra fought back from a 5-2 deficit in the second set tiebreak to oust Stepanek of the Czech Republic 4-6, 7-6 (5), 11-9 to join Gael Monfils, Gilles Simon and Paul-Henri Mathieu in the second round.
Top seed Roger Federer of Switzerland dismissed Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 6-4, 6-2; No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia cruised past Robby Ginepri of the United States 6-4, 6-4.
No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal of Spain produced an error-strewn performance but dug deep to defeat Potito Starace of Italy 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.
Defending Olympic champion Nicolas Massu of Chile defeated Steve Darcis of Belgium 6-4, 7-5 to advance to the second round.
Women's Singles First Round
Chinese players Li Na and Zheng Jie produced surprise results in the Women's Singles competition. Li upset No. 3 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 7-6 (5), 6-4 on Centre Court, after Zheng battled back to defeat No. 11 seed Agnes Szavay of Hungary 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 on Court 2.
Serena Williams and Venus Williams of the United States both made smooth progress to the second round with straight-sets wins over Olga Govortsova of Belarus and Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland, respectively.
Jelena Jankovic of Serbia celebrated becoming the World No. 1 on Monday with a comfortable victory against Doubles specialist Cara Black of Zimbabwe 6-3, 6-3.
The three other Russian women in action on Monday -- Elena Dementieva, Dinara Safina and Vera Zvonareva -- all advanced to the second round.
The No. 8 seed, Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, who has won three titles this year, began her first Olympic campaign with a solid 6-1, 7-6(6) victory over Chan Yung-jan of Chinese Taipei.
Men's Doubles First Round
Hewitt and Guccione of Australia made history when they defeated Agustin Calleri and Juan Monaco of Argentina 4-6, 7-6(4), 18-16. The final set equaled the longest set ever played in either Men's Singles or Doubles at any Olympic Games and set a new record for the highest number of games (57) played in a Men's Olympic match.
Defending champions Fernando Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu of Chile fell to Dmitry Tursunov and Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 7-6(5), 6-4, but victories went to Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland and Nadal and Tommy Robredo of Spain.
Play will resume on Tuesday, August 12, for three unfinished matches interrupted by rain.
