Four Beat The Rains, Move Into Second Round

The schedule was packed but only a fraction of it took the courts, as rain washed out all but four matches at the Olympic Tennis event on Sunday.
 
Italy's Francesca Schiavone and Australia's Samantha Stosur, both playing in their second Olympics, were both winners in straight sets on Day 1. Schiavone, who was a quarterfinalist at Athens in 2004 (falling to Anastasia Myskina in straight sets) beat Uzbekistan's Akgul Amanmuradova, 64 62; Stosur, who fell first round in Athens (to Chanda Rubin in three sets) beat another Italian, Sara Errani, 63 62.
 
Next up for Schiavone is Chan Yung-Jan or No.8 seed Agnieszka Radwanska; next for Stosur is either Olga Govortsova or No.4 seed Serena Williams.
 
A pair of Olympic debutantes were also among the winners. Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki, who became the first woman from her country to win a Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title just last week in Stockholm, beat Tunisia's Selima Sfar, 64 61; Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova had a more difficult match but also managed to win in straight sets, beating Poland's Marta Domachowska, 63 64.
 
Next up for Wozniacki is either No.10 seed Daniela Hantuchova or Ai Sugiyama; next for Pironkova is No.16 seed Dominika Cibulkova or Pauline Parmentier.
 
The rest of the first round matches are all scheduled for Monday, including several that were pushed back due to the rain on Sunday. The aforementioned pairing of Williams and Govortsova did actually take the court, with the American going ahead 63 21; their match will be completed Monday.
 
The singles event suffered its second major withdrawal of the week, as world No.1 Ana Ivanovic - who was to be the top seed - pulled out of her first Olympics due to a thumb injury. Lindsay Davenport had also pulled out with a knee injury. Maria Sharapova had pulled out a week earlier due to a lingering shoulder injury.

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