Without Serena, Venus falters in doubles

Venus Williams lost the only doubles match she has played as a pro without sister Serena.

Venus and first-time partner Chanda Rubin were beaten, 7-5, 1-6, 6-3, by eighth-seeded Li Ting and Sun Tian Tian of China in the first round of the Olympic tournament last night.

Williams won the doubles gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Games with Serena, who pulled out of these Olympics last week because of a lingering left knee injury. Because Serena withdrew after the deadline for adding players to the roster, only Rubin -- already on the US team in singles -- could fill in.

Asked about Serena's absence, Venus said: "I'm here playing for the USA. I love playing with Chanda Rubin. That's not even part of the equation."

In men's doubles, the US team's top-seeded Bryan twins, Bob and Mike, routed Russians Marat Safin and Mikhail Youzhny, 6-1, 6-2, and Vince Spadea and Taylor Dent scored first-round singles victories, but Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish lost in doubles to India's Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi.

Miscellany
Olympic rookie Tayyiba Haneef (17 kills) and veteran Keba Phipps (16 points) led the US women's volleyball team to a four-set victory over Germany . . . Dain Blanton and Jeff Nygaard, the top US men's beach volleyball pair, were flat and out of synch for the second straight match, losing to Canadians John Child and Mark Heese, 21-16, 21-10, in preliminary pool play. Americans Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs overcame a sluggish second set to beat Canadians Guylaine Dumont and Annie Martin, 21-13, 12-21, 15-9 . . . Brenda Villa scored four goals and Kelly Rulon scored the winner on her 20th birthday, as the world champion US women's water polo team beat Hungary, 7-6 . . . In the archery round of 32, Worcester's Butch Johnson lost to Ron van Der Hoff of The Netherlands, 145-135.