- London 2012 - Tennis
Federer crushes Benneteau
Roger Federer made a statement of intent with a demolition of Julien Benneteau to reach the third round of the singles at the London 2012 Olympics.
Federer was pressed hard by Alejandro Falla in his opening game but against a man who took him to five sets at Wimbledon a month ago, the No. 1 seed was in supreme form.
The world No. 1 powered down seven aces and hit 24 winners in a match that lasted less than an hour.
Spanish No. 11 seed Nicolas Almagro eased to a 6-2 6-2 win over Alex Bogomolov Jr, while Marcos Baghdatis battled back from a set down to beat Go Soeda.
Eighth seed Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina overcame Andreas Seppi 6-3 7-6, while ninth seed Juan Monaco strolled past David Goffin 6-4 6-1.
Andy Roddick eased to a 7-5 6-4 win over Martin Klizan, Marin Cilic shrugged aside Jurgen Melzer and Lleyton Hewitt dug in to claim a three-set win over Sergiy Stakhovsky.
There were also triumphs for Richard Gasquet, Janko Tipsarevic, John Isner and Gilles Simon.
In the women's singles, Serena Williams cruised past Urszula Radwanska 6-2 6-3 to reach the second round, while her sister Venus got her campaign underway with a 6-3 6-1 win over Sara Errani.
Elsewhere, there were wins for seeds Caroline Wozniacki, who needed three sets to get past Yanina Wickmayer, Petra Kvitova and Vera Zvonareva.