Nadal and Federer through in Beijing

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer took their first steps towards Olympic gold with contrasting victories in the men's singles.

Top seed Federer silenced those critics already dismissing him as yesterday's man, with a classy 6-4, 6-2 defeat of Russian Dmitry Tursunov, while Spain's Nadal dropped a set to Italy's Potito Starace for the first time before winning 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

Federer, clearly relieved to be up and running at the tournament after a difficult five weeks, said: "Sometimes it plays a trick in your mind where you think maybe you're not playing that well, but it's actually not the case.

"I played well, hit some great winners, got some good balls back - I was playing very solid."

Nadal, who will replace Federer as world number one next Monday, opened proceedings on Centre Court clad in the red and yellow of his national flag as Prince Felipe of Spain looked on.

After rattling through the first set with some flashing winners, he was pegged back when Starace took the second set with some resilient tennis of his own.

Nadal had the crowd gasping with one incredible pick-up from a Starace drop shot early in the decider as he regained his momentum.

Thereafter, an increasingly dispirited Starace dumped a drop shot into the net to hand Nadal his first victory in Olympic tennis.

Meanwhile in the women's singles, American Serena Williams wasted little time reaching the women's second round, polishing off Olga Govortsova 6-3, 6-1.

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