Inside the rings

Tennis

Men - The world's two top-ranked players, rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, were victorious in singles and doubles in their opening matches in their bids to become Olympic medalists for the first time.

Playing the first match on center court, Spain's Nadal overcame numerous missed chances by sweeping the final four games to beat Potito Starace of Italy, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2. The top-seeded Federer, who next week will lose his world No. 1 ranking to Nadal, made his entrance less than an hour later and beat Russia's Dmitry Tursunov, 6-4, 6-2.

Federer went first in doubles, leading Swiss partner Stanislas Wawrinka over Simone Bolelli and Andreas Seppi of Italy, 7-5, 6-1. A little later, Nadal and Tommy Robredo beat Jonas Bjorkman and Robin Soderling of Sweden, 6-3, 6-3.

Reigning doubles champions Nicolas Massu and Fernando Gonzalez of Chile were beaten by Tursunov and Mikhail Youzhny, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

It was a bad day for the American men as Robby Ginepri and Sam Querrey lost in singles, leaving James Blake as the only US entry to reach the second round. Mike and Bob Bryan, the top seed in doubles, won their opening match, 6-2, 6-1 over Mark Knowles and Devin Mullings of the Bahamas, but the team of Blake and Querrey was eliminated.

Women - Serena Williams raced into the third round, winning the final 10 games to beat Samantha Stosur of Australia, 6-2, 6-0, in 44 minutes.

Earlier in the day, the fourth-seeded Williams won all four games when her first-round match resumed after an overnight rain interruption to beat Olga Govortsova of Belarus, 6-3, 6-1. Venus Williams showed no sign of her recent knee injury, rolling past Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky, 6-3, 6-2, in the first round.

Diving

Men's 10-meter synchronized - Lin Yue and Huo Liang led throughout to give China its second gold medal in diving through two events. Lin and Huo won with 468.18 points.

Archery

Men's team - The trio of Im Dong Hyun, Lee Chang Hwan, and Park Kyung Mo won South Korea's third consecutive gold medal in archery, defeating Italy, 227 points to 225.

Judo

Men's 73 kg - Azerbaijan's Elnur Mammadli needed only 23 seconds to send reigning world champion Wang Kichun of South Korea to the mat in a surprising gold medal victory.

Women's 57 kg - Giulia Quintavalle of Italy took an early lead and held Deborah Gravenstijn of the Netherlands scoreless in claiming the gold medal.

Water polo

Women's preliminaries - The US, ranked No. 1 in the world, embarked on its gold medal quest with a 12-11 victory over China. Natalie Golda had four golds for the Americans, who lost to Italy in the semifinals in Athens.

Wrestling

Men's Greco-Roman under 55 kg - Spenser Mango of St. Louis was eliminated in the quarterfinals, losing to Park Eun Chol of South Korea, 9-3.

Rowing

Women's eight - A pair of Maine residents - Anna Goodale of Camden and Elle Logan of Boothbay Harbor - helped their crew become the first American boat to win a heat in Beijing. The US finished in 6:06.53 to earn a spot in Sunday's final.

Women's single sculls - Michelle Guerette of Bristol, Conn., won the first of four repechage quarterfinals by 2.99 seconds, advancing to tomorrow's semifinals.

Women's double sculls - Megan Kalmoe and Ellen Tomek finished first in their repechage heat to move on to Saturday's final.

Men's eight - The American boat, which included Wyatt Allen of Portland, Maine, and Dan Walsh of Norwalk, Conn., finished second in its heat behind Britain and will row in today's repechage.

Men's pair - Twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss of Greenwich, Conn., finished first in the repechage to qualify for the semifinals.

Men's single sculls - In the repechage quarterfinals, Ken Jurkowski of New Fairfield, Conn., qualified by finishing third in his heat.

Men's double sculls - Failing to qualify were Wes Piermarini of West Brookfield and Elliot Hovey of Manchester-by-the-Sea, coming in fourth in the repechage.

Boxing

Featherweight - Nineteen-year-old Raynell Williams of Cleveland dominated in his Olympic debut, outclassing Alessio di Savino of Italy, 9-1. In a first-round matchup of medal contenders, Vasyl Lomachenko of Ukraine battered defending world champion Albert Selimov of Russia, 14-7.

Lightweight - Sadam Ali of Brooklyn, N.Y., suffered a first-round defeat to Romania's Georgian Popescu, 20-5.

Shooting

Men's 50-meter pistol - South Korea's Jin Jong Oh won the gold medal, holding on despite a poor final shot to edge North Korea's Kim Jong Su by 0.2 points.

Women's trap - Alaska native Corey Cogdell won a four-way shootout for the bronze medal to make the podium behind victor Satu Makela-Nummela of Finland and Slovakia's Zuzana Stefecekova.

Fencing

Women's individual foil - Maria Valentina Vezzali of Italy defeated South Korean Nam Hyunhee in a low-scoring final, 6-5.

All three Americans were eliminated in the Round of 32, including Emily Cross, who is entering her senior year at Harvard. She lost to Su Wanwen of China, 15-7.

Weightlifting

Men's 62 kg - Zhang Xiangxiang lifted 143 kilograms (315.3 pounds) in the snatch and 176 kg (388 pounds) in the clean and jerk to clinch China's fourth weightlifting gold medal and second of the day.

Women's 58 kg - Chen Yanqing easily defended her gold medal for China while breaking two Olympic records. Chen lifted a total of 244 kgs (537.9 pounds), bettering her mark from Athens by 7 kgs. She raised 138 kilograms in the clean jerk, an Olympic record.

Volleyball

Women's preliminaries - Cuba, ranked third in the world, overpowered the US, 25-15, 26-24, 25-17, and improved to 2-0 to stay tied atop Group A with China (3-1 over Poland). The Americans dropped to 1-1.