London Olympics roundup: Serena Williams defeats Jelena Jankovic

LONDON — Serena Williams, in her first competitive return to these grass courts since winning Wimbledon two weeks ago, easily beat Jelena Jankovic of Serbia in the first round of women’s tennis competition, 6-3, 6-1. Williams’ teammate, first-time Olympian Christina McHale, wasn’t as fortunate, losing to Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, 6-4, 7-5.

John Isner advanced on the men’s side, 7-6 (7-1), 6-4, over Belgium’s Olivier Rochus, though fellow American Donald Young was eliminated by Andreas Seppi of Italy, 6-4, 6-4.

Ryan Harrison of the U.S. also lost, to Santiago Giraldo of Colombia, 7-5, 6-3. Andy Roddick did not play on the first day of competition.

In a bit of a surprise, men’s Wimbledon champion Roger Federer needed three sets to beat Colombia’s Alejandro Falla.

Badminton: A rough start for the U.S. badminton doubles team of Howard Bach and Tony Gunawan, who lost to the South Korean team of Jae Sung Chung and Yong Dae Lee, 21-14, 21-19. Next up they play the tough Malaysian team of Kien Keat Koo and Boon Heong Tan on Sunday. What will probably be their final match will come Monday against a Japanese team. The tournament is in pool play.

Women’s Basketball: Angola lost to Turkey, 72-50, and will have to play the U.S. on Monday. In other games, France over Brazil, 73-58; Australia beat Britain, 74-58; Russia beat Canada, 58-53; and China beat the Czech Republic, 66-57.

Equestrian: Halfway through the dressage portion of the evening competition, Australia, Germany and the U.S. were at the top of the leaderboard. However, two medal favorites, Britain and New Zealand, had yet to compete. The U.S. team is made up of Boyd Martin, Otis Barbotiere, Karen O’Connor and Tiana Coudray.

In the individual part of the competition, Ingrid Klimke of Germany was leading, followed by Dirk Schrade of Germany and Mary King of Britain.

Fencing: The women’s foil gold went to Elisa Di Francisca of Italy, who needed extra time to beat teammate Arianna Errigo, 12-11. Valentina Vezzali, also of Italy, got the bronze, beating Nam Hyun-Hee of South Korea. American Lee Kiefer was able to make it to the quarterfinals before losing to Errigo, 15-10. Other U.S. competitors Nzingha Prescod and Nicole Ross were eliminated in the round of 32.

Team Handball: The winners on the men’s side were South Korea over Spain, Denmark over Sweden and France over Norway. On the women’s side it was Russia over Angola, Brazil beating Croatia and Montenegro over Britain.

Judo: In a bit of an upset, Russian Arsen Galstyan won the gold medal, beating Hiroaki Hiraoka of Japan in the 132-pound class. Galstyan beat top-ranked Rishod Sobirov of Uzbekistan in the semifinal. Sobirov and Felipe Kitadai of Brazil were awarded bronze medals. There is no bronze-medal match for the semifinal losers.

In the women’s 106-pound classification, Sarah Menezes of Brazil beat the defending Olympic champion Alina Dumitru of Romania to get the gold. The bronze medals went to Eva Csernoviczki of Hungary and Charline van Snick of Belgium. No Americans were in either competition.

Rowing: The U.S. pushed two crews into the finals on the first day of heats. The men’s eight moved forward to Wednesday’s final by winning its heat. And Sara Hendershot and Sarah Zelenka advanced to the A final in pairs. They finished second in their heat.

Shooting: The first medal of the Games went to Yi Siling of China in the women’s 10-meter air rifle. She had to rally to beat Sylwia Bogacka of Poland for the gold. Yu Dan, also of China, finished third. But the U.S. advanced two shooters to the final for the first time since 2000. Jamie Gray finished fifth and Sarah Scherer was seventh.

In the men’s 10-meter air rifle, Jin Jong-oh of South Korea picked up the gold, followed on the medal stand by Luca Tesconi of Italy and Andrija Zlatic of Serbia. U.S. shooters Daryl Szarenski and Jason Turner finished 23rd and 34th.

Table Tennis: Ariel Hsing of the U.S. dominated with a four-game victory over Yadira Silva of Mexico. She plays Xia Lian Ni of Luxembourg on Sunday. The other Americans: Lily Zhang lost in straight games to Cornelia Molnar of Croatia and Timothy Wang lost in straight games to Song Nam Kim of North Korea.

Soccer: In women’s games beyond the U.S. team’s 3-0 victory over Colombia, France beat North Korea, 5-0; Japan and Sweden played to a scoreless draw; Brazil beat New Zealand, 1-0; Canada beat South Africa, 3-0, and Britain beat Cameroon, 3-0.

Volleyball: Aside from the U.S. women’s team victory over South Korea, Japan beat Algeria, three games to none; Russia beat Britain, 3-0; Italy beat the Dominican Republic, 3-1, and China beat Serbia, 3-1.

Weightlifting: Wang Mingjuan of China won the gold in the women’s 105-pound class with a total weight lift of 451 pounds. She is the four-time world champion. Hiromi Miyake of Japan got the silver and Ryang Chun Hwa of North Korea took home the bronze. There were no Americans in the competition.

john.cherwa@latimes.com