Federer and Nadal on course for Gold
August 11th 2008 20:59
The Swiss train is now on a roll
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have started well in their bid for Olympic gold in Beijing.
The Swiss maestro defeated the Russian Tursunov 6-4, 6-2 and will now play Salvadorian Arévalo in the second round.
Federer and Nadal are both palm to palm in the fight for the world no.1 ranking. But from the moment they arrived in Beijing, both conceded that the objective is to: “win the gold medal."
The top two Tennis players in the world prepared like never before to be present in Beijing.
And last night they debuted with a victory: Federer dispatching Tursunov 6-4, 6-2 while Nadal beat Starace 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.
After achieving victory in just one hour and five minutes, Federer will clash heads with Salvadorian Arévalo, after he beat South Korean Hyung-Taik Lee 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
For his part, Nadal will aim to recover quickly from the two and a quarter hours on court against Starace.
The Mallorcan's next battle could prove to very complicated against Lleyton Hewitt - himself a former world no.1 who defeated Sweden's Jonas Bjorkamn 7-5, 7-6 (2).
If there was any doubt about Nadal's game after receiving the world no.1 tag from Monday August 18th, the Wimbledon champion swiftly dispelled those rumours.
"International class is recognised a lot: Massu (Chilean Tennis player who won gold in Athens) converted himself to be an idol of his people after winning gold.”
Regardless, Nadal's main problem will be against Federer. But for now he has a new adversary.
"The problem at the moment is the humidity." Nadal said
"I had to change shirt every 10 minutes. It is difficult when you waste time on court changing towels" he laughed.
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