Olympic tennis: Serena & Venus Williams, Roddick, Federer win

LONDON — The reinvention of Venus Williams, Part 8.

About a month after Williams was dispatched in the first round at Wimbledon — raising questions about her future, again — she returned to the same venue.

Doubt, dismissed. For now, at least.

Poised and purposeful, the unseeded and five-time Wimbledon champion Williams had little trouble against French Open runner-up Sara Errani of Italy, 6-3, 6-1, on Court 2. It was her opening match at this Olympics event, having been pushed to Monday because of inclement weather earlier.

Williams won singles gold at the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000.

Serena Williams, already in the second round, came close to posting the same scoreline as her older sister, beating Urszula Radwanska of Poland, 6-2, 6-3.

Unseeded Andy Roddick also played his first match at the London Olympics, defeating Martin Klizan of Slovakia, 7-5, 6-4, to set up a marquee meeting against Novak Djokovic of Serbia, who won Wimbledon last year. It was Roddick’s first Olympic appearance since Athens in 2004.

“Situationally speaking I don’t know that there’s a lot that Novak and I haven’t seen at this point,” Roddick said in his post-match news conference. “I think we pretty much know how to deal with different scenarios and I won’t know how it will be different until I’m there. It will be nothing better than an educated prediction at this point, I’m not sure, but we’re both comfortable with this venue.”

In contrast, No. 1 Roger Federer of Switzerland had little trouble in reaching the third round, defeating Julien Benneteau of France, 6-2, 6-2. This time, Federer needed less than an hour, unlike his last match against the Frenchman.

At Wimbledon, Federer faced a two-set deficit in his third-round match against Benneteau before rallying. An Olympic singles gold is the rare missing line on Federer’s long-and-winding resume.

He said winning the Olympics would be “a dream come true.”

“I definitely get inspired by the 1992 victory by Marc Rosset,” Federer said of his countryman. “He won the Olympics. That was huge news in Switzerland. I definitely felt like I was inspired by that on an Olympic level. Then I just remember following all the great Olympians for many years. I also hoped one day I could take part in the Olympics.

“I got there [to Sydney], I stayed in the village. I was there for over two weeks. I had the best time following sports, being there with the athletes, playing so well. I almost overachieved in that tournament. Ever since it’s been something very important in my life.”

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