Wimbledon, England – Wimbledon champion Roger Federer and resurgent American Andy Roddick were a pair of winners Monday at the London Olympic Games.
The top-ranked Federer captured his ninth win at the All England Club since last month with a 58-minute 6-2, 6-2 second-round spanking of Julien Benneteau. The Frenchman held match points against the Swiss icon on the famed grass courts here last month before Federer prevailed in a five-set Wimbledon affair on Centre Court.
Federer edged out Benneteau under the roof on Centre Court last month.
"I was able to put in another solid performance today," Federer said. "There was a bit of a swirly wind and I think he might have struggled a little bit with his serve in these conditions, whereas indoors it is straightforward and you can get great rhythm."
Federer, who captured a men's-record-tying seventh Wimbledon title in this London suburb earlier this month, needs an Olympic gold medal to complete a career "Golden Slam."
Up next for Federer will be Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin, who overcame Luxembourg's Gilles Muller, 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-3), 7-5.
Federer also played some doubles on Monday, as he and Stan Wawrinka, seeded sixth, outlasted Japan's Kei Nishikori and Go Soeda 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-4. Federer and Wawrinka are the reigning Olympic doubles gold medallists.
Meanwhile, the surging former No. 1 Roddick posted his 12th win in 13 matches with a 7-5, 6-4 opening-round victory over Slovak Martin Klizan.
The three-time Wimbledon runner-up Roddick recently titled in Eastbourne and Atlanta. The American slugger will meet Aussie and U.S. Open champion Novak Djokovic in the round of 32 on Tuesday. The former top-ranked Serbian star Djokovic was a bronze medalist in Beijing in 2008.
In other second-round action involving seeds, No. 7 Serb Janko Tipsarevic fought back to beat German Philipp Petzschner 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; No. 8 Argentine Juan Martin del Potro erased Italian Andreas Seppi 6-3, 7-6 (7-2); No. 10 American John Isner topped Tunisian Malek Jaziri 7-6 (7-1), 6-2; No. 11 Spaniard Nicolas Almagro drubbed Russian Alex Bogomolov Jr. 6-2, 6-2; and No. 12 Frenchman Gilles Simon drove out promising Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 6-3. The 2009 U.S. Open champion del Potro will battle Simon in the round of 16.
In some other first-round action involving seeds, No. 9 recent Hamburg champ Juan Monaco of Argentina handled Belgian David Goffin 6-4, 6-1, No. 13 Croat Marin Cilic dismissed Austrian Jurgen Melzer 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, and No. 16 Frenchman Richard Gasquet doused last week's Kitzbuehel titlist Robin Haase 6-3, 6-3.
Another second-round result saw Belgian Steve Darcis defeat Colombian Santiago Giraldo 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-4.
Also in the opening round on Day 3, former Australian Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus outlasted the aforementioned Soeda 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-5), 6-2; rising Canadian Milos Raonic bested Japanese Tatsuma Ito 6-3, 6-4; Spain's Feliciano Lopez came back to beat Russian Dmitry Tursunov 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 9-7; former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia edged out Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; Slovenian Blaz Kavcic dropped Indian Vishnu Vardhan 6-3, 6-2; and Russian Nikolay Davydenko clipped Czech Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-3. Hewitt was a Wimbledon titlist at the All England Club in 2002.
In addition to Djokovic-Roddick, Tuesday's second-round schedule will also feature a match for British favorite, third-seeded Wimbledon runner-up Andy Murray, who will be opposed by Finn Jarkko Nieminen.
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