Beijing: Serena Williams, seeded fourth, moved into the second round of the Olympic Games tennis singles with a rain-affected straight sets win over tournament debutant Olga Govortsova of Belarus.
The eight-time Grand Slam champion, a doubles gold medallist from Sydney in 2000 with sister Venus, but who was making her debut in Olympic singles after missing Athens with a knee injury, had led the 47th-ranked Govortsova 6-3, 2-1 on Sunday before rain forced all play to be cancelled.
Resuming on centre court on Monday, the American didn't hang around, breaking the Belarussian twice and holding serve to see out the second set 6-1.
On Sunday, Williams raced out to a 3-0 lead in the first set, but the Belarussian made the former world number one work hard for her points.
Although Williams broke again to take an ominous 5-1 lead, Govortsova rebounded to break and then hold serve on her own game.
The Belarussian had break point in the next game but Williams held her nerve to win a cracking rally for deuce before play was interrupted for 30 minutes by rain.
Williams survived a second breakpoint to win the first set 6-3 when play resumed, and broke Govortsova in the first game of the second set.
In other women's matches, Russian pair Dinara Safina, the sixth seed, and ninth-seeded Vera Zvonareva beating Mara Santangelo of Italy and China's Yan Zi respectively.
Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova, seeded 10th, saw off Japan's Ai Sugiyama 6-2, 7-5, while number 15 seed Alize Cornet of France fought back from a set down overnight for a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over the Czech Republic's Nicole Vaidisova.
Spain's Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez thrashed Australian Alicia Molik 6-1, 6-1, while China's Peng Shuai outplayed Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro 7-5, 7-6 (7/2).
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