Tennis: Venus, Roddick Make Winning Starts
About an hour after winning his Olympic debut yesterday, Andy Roddick found himself in a Rulon Gardner headlock.
Don't worry: They were horsing around, and Roddick's OK. Just another example of how the U.S. Open champion is embracing every aspect of the games, from living in the athletes' village to trading pins and meeting stars from other sports.
Roddick smacked 12 aces and 16 service winners in a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory over Flavio Saretta of Brazil. Then the former No. 1 player got to meet 2000 Greco-Roman gold medalist Gardner and two other American wrestlers who came to watch.
Not too many people did, though Roddick took it in stride.
``You have to understand -- people see tennis a lot,'' Roddick said. ``If it's a choice between that or swimming at the Olympics, people possibly go to swimming.''
Organizers did not announce attendance on the tournament's blustery opening day, but only about 500 spectators were at the 8,000-seat center court when defending gold medalist Venus Williams overpowered Melinda Czink of Hungary 6-1, 6-2 in the first match.
Strong, swirling winds made balls dance during points, blew over courtside umbrellas intended to provide shade, and sent ball boys scurrying to gather debris that flew near players.
The arena looked to be a quarter full for Justine Henin-Hardenne's 6-3, 6-4 victory over Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic, but fans might have had trouble keeping track of who was leading. The scoreboard didn't work from early in the first set until early in the second.
It was the top-ranked Belgian's first outing since losing at the French Open in May.
For Williams, Sunday was her first match in three weeks. She quit with a right wrist injury during a semifinal at Carson, Calif., then pulled out of the next WTA tournament.
She's also dealing with the disappointment of her sister Serena's absence. They won the doubles gold at the Sydney Games, but Serena pulled out of these Olympics with a left knee injury.
What's it like without little sis?
``Super-strange. It was tough for us,'' Williams said. ``I haven't told her everything I've been doing, I haven't said a lot about it, because I know she's pretty upset.''
With both wrists and her left knee bandaged, Williams appeared to be bothered more by the swirling wind than Czink, who's ranked 103rd and is 3-17 this season. While Williams built a 22-3 edge in winners, she also made 33 unforced errors.
The first cry of ``Let's go, Venus!'' didn't come until the penultimate game of her 57-minute match. Williams' grunts and the squeaks of players' sneakers echoed off the thousands of empty blue seats.
A big crowd did turn out for Marat Safin's 6-0, 6-4 victory over Karol Kucera of Slovakia. Safin lost in the first round at the Sydney Games right after winning the 2000 U.S. Open title.
The biggest stunner Sunday was No. 4 Tim Henman's 6-3, 6-3 loss to Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic, while No. 11 Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina was upset by Max Mirnyi of Belarus 3-6, 7-6 (0), 6-4. Winners included No. 5 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, No. 14 Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, and No. 16 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile.
Also, No. 8 Ai Sugiyama of Japan outlasted Zheng Jie of China 4-6, 6-3, 8-6 in a 2 1/2 -hour match suspended for 10 minutes after the second set because of heat.
No. 10 Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, No. 11 Francesca Schiavone of Italy and No. 16 Chanda Rubin also won.
``The wind affected everyone today,'' Rubin said. ``This was the first day where it has been windy. We've been practicing in beautiful and calm conditions but it was a little bit of a shock.''
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