Tennis: Roger Federer eases through at Wimbledon

July 30, 2012: Roger Federer in action at Wimbledon (GETTY IMAGES)

There were no dramas for world number one Roger Federer today as he brushed aside France's Julien Benneteau to reach the last 16 of the Olympic tennis tournament at Wimbledon.

The pair met in the third round of Wimbledon last month when Benneteau almost pulled off a huge shock as he led Federer by two sets to love before the Swiss star turned things around.

Had the Frenchman taken the opening two sets today, he would have won, with the Olympic competition being played over best-of-three until the final, which is best-of-five.

But Federer, who is the reigning Olympic doubles champion with Stanislas Wawrinka but is looking for a first singles medal, broke serve at the first opportunity and was never troubled as he eased to a 6-2 6-2 victory.

The standout second-round match tomorrow will see second seed Novak Djokovic, who struggled a little bit yesterday, face former world number one Andy Roddick.

American Roddick, who is unseeded here, came through a tight clash with Slovakia's Martin Klizan 7-5 6-4, while another old-stager, Australia's Lleyton Hewitt, dug out a 6-3 4-6 6-3 victory over Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky.

Eleventh-seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro joined Federer in the third round with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Alex Bogomolov Jr, while in the first round there were wins for Juan Monaco, Marin Cilic and Richard Gasquet.

PA