Azarenka, Williams sisters move on at Olympic Games

Wimbledon, England – Top seed Victoria Azarenka and the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus, were among Monday's winners at the London Olympic Games.

The Australian Open champion Azarenka, of Belarus, reached the second round with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu on the famed grass courts at the All England Club.

Azarenka's second-round opponent on Tuesday will be Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.

Meanwhile, the fourth-seeded former No. 1 Serena mauled Poland's Urszula Radwanska 6-2, 6-3 in second-round action on the world's most-famous tennis courts.

The American great Serena, who captured her fifth Wimbledon title in this London suburb earlier this month, needs an Olympic gold medal to complete a career "Golden Slam."

Up next for Serena will be Russian Vera Zvonareva, who lost to the American in the 2010 Wimbledon finale.

Meanwhile, an unseeded Venus, who like her younger sister is also a five-time Wimbledon champ, blew past ninth-seeded Italian Sara Errani 6-3, 6-1 in an opening-round affair. Errani was a surprise French Open runner-up last month.

"I just wanted to play well for my country," Venus said on Monday. "It was just great to be out there."

In other second-round action involving seeds, last year's Wimbledon winner and No. 6 Czech Petra Kvitova got past China's Peng Shuai 7-5, 2-6, 6-1; No. 8 former No. 1 Dane Caroline Wozniacki held off Belgian Yanina Wickmayer 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; No. 11 and former top-ranked Serb Ana Ivanovic beat Great Britain's Elena Baltacha 6-4, 7-5; and a No. 13 Zvonareva whipped former French Open champ Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-3, 6-3. Zvonareva was a bronze medalist in Beijing four years ago.

Up next for the former French Open champion Ivanovic will be fellow former No. 1 Kim Clijsters, the three-time U.S. Open champion from Belgium who blew past Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3, 6-3 on Day 3.

Other second-round results saw Italian Flavia Pennetta tackle Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova 7-5, 6-1 and Slovak Daniela Hantuchova dismiss France's Alize Cornet 6-3, 6-0.

In other first-round play involving seeds, No. 7 German Angelique Kerber beat Czech Petra Cetkovska 6-1, 3-0, retired; No. 14 Russian Maria Kirilenko topped Colombian Mariana Duque Marino 6-0, 1-1, retired; No. 15 German Sabine Lisicki overcame Tunisia's Ons Jabeur 4-6, 6-0, 7-5; and No. 16 Russian Nadia Petrova downed Chinese Zheng Jie 6-4, 7-6 (9-7).

Additional opening-round wins came for Brits Laura Robson and Heather Watson, American Varvara Lepchenko and Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak.

In addition to Azarenka, Tuesday's second-round schedule will also feature third-seeded former Wimbledon champ Maria Sharapova of Russia and Venus. The former No. 1 French Open champion and Australian Open runner-up Sharapova will meet Robson, while Venus will encounter her fellow North American Wozniak.

In an opening-round women's doubles match on Monday, Serena and Venus leveled a Romanian tandem of Sorana Cirstea and Simona Halep 6-3, 6-2. The powerful sisters paired for a Wimbledon doubles title here earlier this month.