Wimbledon, England (Sports Network) - Wimbledon champion Roger Federer and
resurgent American Andy Roddick were a pair of winners Monday at the London
Olympics.
The top-ranked Federer captured his ninth win at the All England Club over the
last month with a 6-2, 6-2 second-round spanking of France's Julien Benneteau.
Federer captured a men's-record-tying seventh Wimbledon title in this London
suburb earlier this month. The Swiss great 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.
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 to Federer Roddick recently titled in
Eastbourne and Atlanta.
Federer was joined in the third round by 11th-seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro,
who drubbed Russian Alex Bogomolov Jr. 6-2, 6-2.
In some other first-round action involving seeds, No. 9 recent Hamburg
champ Juan Monaco 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 Kitzbuhel titlist Robin Haase
6-3, 6-3.
Also in the opening round, former Australian Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis
of Cyprus outlasted Japan's Go 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.
The Sports Network