Nadal And Federer Safely Through

Top seed Federer mocked those already dismissing him as yesterday's man with a classy 6-4 6-2 defeat of Russian Dmitry Tursunov.

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

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

"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," Federer told reporters, clearly relieved to be up and running at the tournament after a difficult five weeks.

"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. A dispirited Starace dumped a drop shot into the net to hand Nadal his first victory in Olympic tennis.

Sunday's rain allowed just nine completed results and organisers crammed 65 matches in to Monday's manic order of play meaning a feast of action at the nine-court tennis complex.

Nicolas Massu, the surprise gold medallist in singles and doubles four years ago in Athens, beat Belgium's Steve Darcis 6-4 7-5.

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 in a match interrupted on Sunday.

Williams, however, seemed annoyed with her schedule.

"I felt like I should have had today off but it was good practice," she told reporters. "I wanted to go to the market today but we have to play so many matches."

Williams was joined in the second round by French Open runner-up Dinara Safina, one of four Russian medal prospects in the singles.

Australia's Lleyton Hewitt, the former world number one, beat Swedish veteran Jonas Bjorkman 7-5 7-6 to set up a second round tie with Nadal.