Serena breezes as 'ugly' high winds bring anger to Rio tennis

RIO DE JANEIRO — Defending champion Serena Williams defied high winds to breeze into the Olympic tennis second round Sunday as organizers were blasted for allowing play in conditions described as "ugly". The 34-year-old world No. 1, who can take her gold medal count to six if she repeats as singles and doubles champion, defeated Australia's Daria Gavrilova 6-4, 6-2. Williams, sporting a patriotic Stars and Stripes hairband on center court, will face either Sweden's Johanna Larsson or Alize Cornet of France. She will be hoping it is Larsson as Frenchwoman Cornet famously defeated her three times in 2014, including at Wimbledon. Winds of up to 25km/h caused havoc with tempers as well as with the schedule. Matches on outside courts were delayed by 90 minutes as gusts buffeted the Barra complex, destroying hoardings and making play on exposed arenas impossible. "It was really intense. I think my last Olympic final four years ago was really windy too," said Williams. "Today they couldn't start the matches on the outside courts. I was a little nervous about that so I was happy to get through." Williams also confirmed that she and sister Venus will play doubles later in the day. The 36-year-old Venus was knocked out of the singles Saturday with her US team claiming she was suffering from a virus. Play opened as scheduled on centre court where German entertainer Dustin Brown made a tearful, injury-enforced exit. Brown, playing with his flowing dreadlocks tucked inside a white rasta beanie hat, retired in the second set of his clash with home hope Thomaz Bellucci after turning his left ankle in a nasty-looking fall. A furious Bellucci — a friend of Brown's — later lashed out at organizers for allowing the match to go ahead. World No. 86 Brown, who dumped Rafael Nadal out of Wimbledon in 2015, took an injury time-out to have his ankle strapped but quit in tears moments later. Brown had won the first set 6-4 but was down 4-5 in the second when he called it quits. He immediately headed for a scan at a nearby hospital. "It was almost impossible," said 28-year-old Bellucci. "I don't know how they allowed us to play like this. I have never played in these conditions. "The wind was so fast and the match became ugly. You just couldn't take any risks." Bellucci, backed by a raucous home crowd, goes on to face either Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas or Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia for a spot in the third round. World number one Djokovic faces Argentine giant Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 US Open champion. Del Potro endured a nightmare build-up to the center court showdown when he was stranded in a broken down elevator at the athletes village for 40 minutes Sunday morning. Sick Venus, Radwanska crash out On Saturday, four-time gold medalist Venus Williams, suffering with a virus, slumped to her first ever opening round loss at an Olympic Games, joining jet-lagged Agnieszka Radwanska at the exit door. American fifth seed Venus, the singles champion in 2000 and, at 36, the oldest woman in the draw, lost to Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) in a three-hour center court marathon. Venus, who has also captured three doubles golds with sister Serena, had her opportunities, leading 3-1 in the second set and 4-1 in the decider. But despite the encouragement of watching US Secretary of State John Kerry, she ran out of steam at the crucial moments, noisily coughing throughout the closing exchanges. “She had been ill for a few days with a bad virus. She had an upset stomach and she was coughing up a lot, you could see she was really struggling,” said US captain Mary Jo Fernandez, who faced the media in Venus’ place. Fourth seeded Radwanska was also a high-profile casualty, slumping to a 6-4, 7-5 loss against China’s world number 63 Zheng Saisai. The Pole only arrived in Rio Wednesday night after having to fly from Montreal, where she competed last week, to New York to Lisbon and then to Rio. Zheng’s win was the second top victory of the day for China after national number one Zhang Shuai saved three match points to beat Swiss 12th seed Timea Bacsinszky, 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 7-6 (9/7). Italian sixth seed Roberta Vinci, the 2015 US Open runner-up, also exited, going down 7-5, 6-4 to Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. There was little equivalent drama in the men’s singles. Japanese fourth seed Kei Nishikori, a quarterfinalist in London in 2012, breezed past Spanish left-hander Albert Ramos-Vinolas, 6-2, 6-4. Nishikori next plays Australia’s John Millman, who became the first player to clinch a ‘double bagel’ — 6-0, 6-0 — in Games history. The 27-year-old Millman swept past Ricardas Berankis in just 50 minutes, making it a miserable summer for the Lithuanian. At Wimbledon, Berankis was knocked out in the first round by Britain’s world number 772 Marcus Willis, a club professional. Men’s fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga overcame a scare from Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri to triumph 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. 35-year-old Martina Hingis, playing in her first Olympics in 20 years, made it through to the second round of the women’s doubles. She and Bacsinszky defeated Australia’s Samantha Stosur and Daria Gavrilova 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.