Nadal crushes Hewitt
Rafael Nadal signalled his intent in the Olympic tennis tournament with a resounding 6-1 6-2 drubbing of Australian Lleyton Hewitt.
Last Updated: 12/08/08 3:20pm
Rafael Nadal signalled his intent in the Olympic tennis tournament with a resounding 6-1 6-2 drubbing of Australian Lleyton Hewitt, while defending champion Nicolas Massu went out.
New world number one Nadal is only seeded two in Beijing, but he certainly still looks like the man to beat given his current form.
The French Open and Wimbledon champion took advantage of any fatigue Hewitt showed after his doubles match went on into the early hours of the morning by rolling over the Australian in double quick time to cruise through.
Roger Federer followed Nadal on court and was comfortable as he beat another Rafael - El Salvador's Arevalo.
The deposed world number one won easily 6-2 6-4 against the man ranked down at 447 and only in the tournament as an invitee.
Champion out
Reigning champion Nicolas Massu of Chile was dumped out by Argentinian seventh seed David Nalbandian 7-6 6-1.
Massu was a double champion in Athens winning singles and double events, but has now been dumped out of both.
Novak Djokovic progressed by beating controversial entry Rainer Schuettler of Germany - winning through 6-4 6-2, but number four seed Nikolay Davydenko lost against Paul-Henri Mathieu.
More Frenchmen went through in the form of Gilles Simon, the 10th seed, and Gael Monfils after wins over Guillermo Canas of Argentina and Romanian Victor Hanescu.
Tomas Berdych defeated Andreas Seppi while Belgian Olivier Rochus made it into the next round when Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic retired injured.
