Set on reclaiming his No 1 tennis crown after he officially loses it to Spanish rival Rafael Nadal later this month, Roger Federer Monday eased past Russian big-server Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-2 for a step closer to Olympic gold in Beijing.

Roger Federer of Switzerland returns the ball to Dmitry Tursunov of Russia during their men's first round tennis match at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 11, 2008. [Agencies]

"I had some great winners and got some good balls back," Federer said. "I really felt I was playing very solid. That's what I was expecting from myself today and I'm really happy with the result because I knew the danger from Dmitry."

Nadal survived a scare from 71st-ranked Italian Potito Starac but took a three-set win over the Italian blackhorse with 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

Chinese women players Zheng Jie, Li Na and Peng Shuai progressed into the second round, along with the Williams sisters and World No 1 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia.

Two high-ranked men's seeds were eliminated: No 5 David Ferrer of Spain lost to Serbian Janko Tipsarevic 7-6 (8), 6-2, while No 6 Andy Murray of Britain was beaten by Lu Yen-hsun of Chinese Taipei 7-6 (5), 6-4.

Zheng Jie of China returns the ball to Agnes Szavay of Hungary during their first round match Monday. Zheng won 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. [Agencies]

Home spectators at court two of the Beijing Green Olympic Center also got what they paid for as Zheng rallied to beat a powerful Agnes Szavay of Hungary in a 2 hr 50 min thriller.

Amid a 2,000 partisan crowd on the second day of the tennis event, the 25-year-old overcame an early deficit to oust China Open champion Szavay 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Zheng was joined in the second round by Peng, who beat Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 7-5, 7-6(3), but Yan Zi, who won the doubles titles at the Wimbledon and Australian Opens with Zheng in 2006, lost to Russian Vera Zvonareva 6-2, 6-1.

"The home crowd gave me the win," Zheng said, who beat Szavay in the Wimbledon fourth round two months ago.

"They've been with me throughout the match. This is a very, very difficult match for me - to compete against a solid baseliner like her in the first round at the Games, but I was encouraged by fans' support and I hope they enjoyed the match today."

Elsewhere, Serena Williams finished her two-day competition that was delayed by rain Monday by beating Olga Govortsova 6-3, 6-1.

A total of 62 matches got under way Monday, after thunderstorms on day one saw only nine matches completed in the rain.

Chile's Nicolas Massu, ranked 125, displayed his quest for a second shock singles gold with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Steve Darcis of Belgium, while Argentina's David Nalbandian saw off Zeng Shaoxuan of China 6-2, 6-1.

Former World No 1 Lleyton Hewitt beat Jonas Bjorkman to set up a clash with Nadal.

After the withdrawal of World No 1 Ana Ivanovic Monday, India's Sania Mirza became the second player to retire from the event. She was trailing 6-2, 2-1 against Czech Iveta Benesova in the first round when her right wrist became too painful.

"It was hurting before I even came to Beijing but it's the Olympics so you have to try and give it your best shot," Mirza told reporters as she clutched an ice pack.

"The timing is very bad. I've been on painkillers for the last six days and took four this morning, but what worries me is that I could still feel it with that many painkillers."

Agencies contributed to the story