The United States had a rough first day when it came to tennis at the 2016 Rio Olympics, with the upset of No. 5 seed Venus Williams in the women’s singles bracket especially hurting. But things got back on track Sunday when Serena Williams, the top seed and defending gold medalist, easily cruised past the tough Daria Gavrilova in her opening round match.
Olympics 2016 tennis results and scores: Serena Williams dominates in opener, advances to 2nd round
Williams is on to the second round after cruising through Daria Gavrilova on Sunday.
Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports
Williams is the favorite to win gold once again, and took Gavrilova down in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2. Williams is the most dominant player in women’s tennis and one of the country’s most decorated Olympians, and is also scheduled to play a doubles match with her sister, Venus, later on Sunday.
The pair of Venus and Serena are seeded on top of the women’s doubles bracket after capturing their first Grand Slam doubles title in many years at Wimbledon just weeks ago. They will play Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova later on Sunday.
In other doubles action, the American pair of Coco Vandeweghe and Bethanie Mattek-Sands easily bested the team of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra-Santonja in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1.
The men’s team of Brian Baker and Rajeev Ram will face the tough French team of Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga later on Sunday as well. Originally, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan were entered in the doubles bracket but pulled out of the Olympics over health concerns.
The other U.S. team of Steve Johnson and Jack Sock will face Julio Peralta and Hans Podlipnik-Castillo later on Sunday. Johnson is the only U.S. man to advance in singles play after Sock, Baker and Denis Kudla were all eliminated on Saturday.
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