Serena Slides Through as Seeds Fall in Olympic Opening Day

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Serena Slides Through as Seeds Fall in Olympic Opening Day

By Erik Gudris

(July 28, 2012) -- On the first day of the women's Olympic tennis event being held at the All-England Lawn and Tennis Club, though plenty of players showed some expected early nerves in their first round matches, what wasn't expected was the slicker than normal condition of the newly sown courts just weeks after being worn down by many of the same players competing today during Wimbledon.

For No. 4 seed Serena Williams, she certainly knew what to expect in her opponent Serbia's Jelena Jankovic who had last beaten her in Rome two years ago. But Jankovic in recent months has only shown flashes of the solid backcourt game that took her to No. 1 a few years ago. Williams opened the match appropriately with an ace and though Jankovic was able to read the potent Williams serve at times, the Serb didn't do as good a job taking care of her own service game as she fell behind 1-3 early in the first set that Williams went on to claim 6-3.

Jankovic looked unsure of her footing at times on Centre Court and netted a backhand in the opening game of the second set to give Williams an early break. From there Williams steamrolled her way through the set to close out a convincing 6-3, 6-1 win.

"I was so so nervous," said Williams afterwards to NBC's Renee Stubbs. "I was talking about it to Mary Joe (Fernandez) before the match. But it's good because it means you are really ready to play."

Things didn't go as well for Williams's fellow American teammate Christina McHale who dropped the first set to Serbia's Ana Ivanovic but rallied from 2-5 down in the second set to even things at 5-all. But serving to force a tiebreak, McHale couldn't make the final push as she netted to give Ivanovic a 6-4, 7-5 win.

Several high profile seeds found themselves out of the singles event early with No. 5 seed Australia's Sam Stosur losing a third set serving contest to Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3, 5-7, 8-10 while No. 10 seed China's Li Na also went out in three sets to Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova 2-6, 6-3, 3-6. Grass court specialist Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova upset No. 12 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 7-6(4), 6-2.

Kim Clijsters, playing in her first and what will be her only Olympics, took out Italy's Roberta Vinci while No. 6 seed Petra Kvitova survived almost going down a double break in the first set to Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko and then dropping the second set before rallying to win 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.

No. 8 seed Caroline Wozniacki overcame her nerves and a determined Anne Keothavong of Great Britain before the Dane won 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)