Spaniards were enormously dented at the on-going Olympic tennis tournament as three of their four men singles players suffered early exit from the Aug. 10-17 event on Monday.
Headed by Rafael Nadal, the man a week away from being the world No 1, the Spanish contingent had aimed at least one gold at the event where they got medals in previous Games.
But the road to the podium seemed to turn uphill after world number four David Ferrer, world number 12 Nicolas Almagro and former top ten player Tommy Robredo were all fell in the first round.
Seeded five in the men's singles, Ferrer suffered a shock 7-6(8), 6-2 defeat to Serb Janko Tipsarevic.
The crafty Tipsarevic, who plays an unorthodox brand of tennis, fought back from a break down to take the first set in a tiebreaker before producing a run of four games from 1-1 in the second to effectively seal the match.
Moments before Ferrer's loss, French Open semifinalist Gael Monfils overpowered Almagro 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
Earlier, Italian Andreas Seppi beat Robredo 6-4, 4-6, 8-6, despite the Spaniard leading 4-2 in the final set.
Nadal was the lone Spanish victor in men's part, downing Potito Starace from Italy in a sweating full-set match after two hours and 15 minutes' toil.
World number one Roger Federer also stayed on course for the gold medal but followed a different path, easing past Russian Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-2.
Apart from a humidity level that some players say is the worst they've ever played in, it's perfect playing conditions out there, with the temperature having dropped a little after the downpour on Sunday that forced organisers to cancel most of the matches on the schedule.
"I mean, one day maybe, I don't know, I think it was just really, really hot, you know. Maybe the heat and the whole combination, maybe being a bit tired, getting used to different conditions. I think I felt it a little bit," answered Federer when asked whether the air is polluted.
"But then, honestly, when I'm out there, I don't feel a pollution problem. I think it's more humidity than anything else for us, the players. That's my personal opinion."
The laurels should be registered for the Chinese women players, who staged some daunting comeback wins while facing top seeds.
Hailed by a large number of home crowd, Chinese female number one Zheng Jie, the semifinalist of the Wimbledon, rallied past 11th seed Agnes Szavay of Hungary 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 while Li Na, sidelined for a long time on the squad's injury list, clawed back from 5-2 down in the opening set to beat third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 7-6(5), 6-4.
Kuznetsova, who reached the quarterfinals at teh Athens 2004 Olympics, struggled with her serve throughout the one hour and 45 minutes match. She double-faulted seven times, four times in the first set and three times in the second set.
The Russian held a 5-2 edge in the first set, but lost the next three games to enable Li to even the score at 5-5 and then force a tiebreaker.
"I think lately I have trouble when I'm leading in a match, I always lose it. The same thing happened to me in Montreal when I played Safina and the same thing happened to me at Wimbledon when I was up 4-1 in the third set when playing Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska. I guess this is a key point I have to keep working on. I was not playing my best game and she was playing great."
Elsewhere, Lu Yen-hsun from Chinese Taipei stunned sixth seed Andy Murray from Britain 7-6(5), 6-4, and Athens men's singles and doubles gold medallist Nicolas Massu advanced into the second round but failed in the doubles event first round with Fernando Gonzalez. Third seed Novak Djokovic and Argentine David Nalbandian both came through.
In women's part, the Williams sisters both enjoyed easy wins. Sixth seed Safina and eighth seed Radwanska were also barely tested.
(Xinhua News Agency August 12, 2008)