Serena, Potro continue march in Rio

RIO DE JANEIRO: One destroyed racket — and one poor set — later, Serena Williams is safely into the third round of the Rio Olympics as she bids for a second consecutive singles gold medal.
The No. 1-seeded American struggled for quite a while Monday night before emerging with a 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory over France’s Alize Cornet.
Williams started off by taking the first three games, but then dropped five of the following six. During that troublesome stretch, Williams reacted to losing two games in a row by mangling her equipment, slamming it against the back of her sideline chair.
Later, she was forced to erase a pair of set points for Cornet, who had won four of their previous seven matchups.
But Williams claimed the last three points of the tiebreaker, raced to a 3-0 lead in the second set and was on her way.
No tennis player ever has won two Olympic singles golds — let alone two in a row.
Juan Martin del Potro this time, understandably. Still, he produced a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 victory over Portugal’s Joao Sousa with the help of 16 forehand winners, each more thunderous than the last.
“It was really hard for me,” del Potro said about the quick turnaround. “I could not believe my match from yesterday, and I already won another match.”
And he had a doubles match to go get ready for later Monday, too.
The win over Sousa started only 15½ hours after the oft-injured del Potro, whose ranking is outside the top 100 after a series of wrist operations, finished beating Djokovic in straight sets Sunday night, then wept on court.
Earlier that day, the 6-foot-6 Argentine found himself trapped while trying to get from one floor to another — until getting rescued by countrymen competing in handball.
Asked if he took an elevator before facing Sousa, del Potro replied with a laugh: “Not today.”
In a tournament that began without half of the members of the ATP’s top 10 — including Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka — del Potro is suddenly looking like someone who might be able to add another medal to the bronze he took home from the 2012 London Olympics.
Because of injuries, del Potro had gone 2½ years without participating in a Grand Slam tournament until playing at Wimbledon, so one big question is what his fitness level is.
“I’m getting better. I’m in good shape, but I don’t know if I’m prepared to play six or more matches,” he said. “This week I’m just going slowly, trying to get better every day.”
One of these men will be a semifinalist in his portion of the bracket: del Potro, Spain’s 10th-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut, Japan’s Taro Daniel or Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller, who advanced to the third round Monday by eliminating fifth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 6-3. Tsonga, who is from France, was treated by a trainer for a problem with his right foot.