Wimbledon, England (Sports Network) - Top seed Victoria Azarenka and the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus, were among Monday's winners at the London Olympic Games.

The Australian Open champion Azarenka, of Belarus, reached the second round with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu on the famed grass courts at the All England Club.

Azarenka's second-round opponent will be Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.

Meanwhile, the fourth-seeded former No. 1 Serena mauled Poland's Urszula Radwanska 6-2, 6-3 in second-round action on the world's most-famous tennis courts.

The American great Serena, who captured her fifth Wimbledon title in this London suburb earlier this month, needs an Olympic gold medal to complete a career "Golden Slam."

Meanwhile, an unseeded Venus, who like her younger sister is also a five-time Wimbledon champ, blew past ninth-seeded Italian Sara Errani 6-3, 6-1 in an opening-round affair. Errani was a surprise French Open runner-up last month.

In other second-round action involving seeds, former Wimbledon winner and No. 6 Czech Petra Kvitova got past China's Peng Shuai 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 and No. 13 Russian Vera Zvonareva, the 2010 Wimbledon runner-up, whipped former French Open champ Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-3, 6-3.

Another second-round result saw Slovak Daniela Hantuchova dismiss France's Alize Cornet 6-3, 6-0.

In other first-round play involving seeds, No. 7 German Angelique Kerber beat Czech Petra Cetkovska 6-1, 3-0, retired; No. 14 Russian Maria Kirilenko topped Colombian Mariana Duque Marino 6-0, 1-1, retired; No. 15 German Sabine Lisicki overcame Tunisia's Ons Jabeur 4-6, 6-0, 7-5; and No. 16 Russian Nadia Petrova downed Chinese Zheng Jie 6-4, 7-6 (9-7).

Additional opening-round wins came for Great Britain's Laura Robson and Heather Watson, American Varvara Lepchenko and Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak.

 

The Sports Network