Taiwan’s top male tennis player Lu Yen-hsun (盧彥勳) yesterday defeated Argentina’s Agustin Calleri 6-4, 6-4 in the second round of the Olympic men’s singles tournament to reach the last 16.
He almost broke Calleri in the first game before doing so in the third and then racing away with the first set.
Lu continued to pressure Calleri at the beginning of the second set breaking him again after three deuces.
PHOTO: AFP
The Argentine broke back in the fourth game before Lu broke Calleri again before taking the match in straight sets.
On Monday Lu shocked the world by beating sixth-seeded Briton Andy Murray in the first round. The Taiwanese player ranked 77th in the latest ATP rankings plays Austria’s Jurgen Melzer in the next round.
In the first round of the women’s doubles yesterday Taiwanese duo Chan Yung-jan and Chuang Chia-jung survived an almighty scare against French pair Alize Cornet and Virginie Razzano before earning a 7-6 (2), 6-7 (3), 7-5 victory.
Chang and Chuang, the third seeds, will play Italian duo Francesca Schiavone and Flavia Pennetta in the next round.
In other matches yesterday the Williams sisters and the Serbian duo of Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic all blitzed their second-round Olympic opponents.
Jankovic beat Ukraine’s Alona Bondarenko 7-5, 6-1.
Jankovic’s compatriot Djokovic, seeded third in the men’s draw, progressed confidently against Germany’s Rainer Schuettler, 6-4, 6-2.
The Williams sisters both earlier confirmed their status as among the hot favorites for gold in the women’s singles.
Serena took just 44 minutes to dispatch Australia’s Samantha Stosur, the American breaking at 3-2 and taking control of the match to reel off the last 10 games to love.
Her round-three opponent is Alize Cornet, who outclassed China’s Peng Shuai 6-2, 6-2.
Venus demolished Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic, 6-1, 6-4.
Russian sixth seed Dinara Safina stayed in the mix with a 7-6 (7/3), 6-1 win over Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, while Slovakian 16th seed Dominika Cibulkova cruised past Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova 6-2, 6-2.
Russian ninth seed Vera Zvonareva also stayed in the mix with a wins over Israeli Shahar Peer.
But two other women’s seeds were knocked out in morning play.
Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, the 10th seed, lost to Danish teen Caroline Wozniacki 6-1, 6-3, while Polish eighth seed Agnieszka Radwanska went down 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) to Italian Francesca Schiavone.
In the men’s second round, Rafael Nadal sent out a stark message of intent to contenders for the Olympic singles crown with a crushing 6-1, 6-2 defeat of Australian Lleyton Hewitt.
The Spaniard asserted full control of the match early on, breaking Hewitt at 2-1 up in the first set.
Hewitt managed to break Nadal in the first game of the second set in a short-lived revival but the Spaniard stole the march again and soon had the match wrapped up.
French duo Gilles Simon, the 10th seed, and Gael Monfils saw off Guillermo Canas of Argentina and Romanian Victor Hanescu respectively.
There was also a win for 17th-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych over Italy’s Andreas Seppi, and a win for Belgian Olivier Rochus who was a set ahead of Janko Tipsarevic when the Serbian retired injured.
Argentina’s David Nalbandian beat Nicolas Massu of Chile 7-6 (7/0), 6-1 to end the defending champion’s quest for another Olympic title.
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