Top seed Roger Federer will meet Czech Tomas Berdych in the third round of the Olympic tennis event, a rematch of Athens Games four years ago, after brushing aside Rafael Arevalo from Estonia in straight sets on Tuesday.

The Beijing Games was the Swiss' third bid for a gold medal which he hopes to add to his shiny trophy room.

In 2000 he lost a semi-final to Tommy Haas and then let a bronze medal slip through his fingers against Frenchman Arnaud Di Pasquale. Four years later he lost in the second round to Tomas Berdych.

"Of course I'm looking forward to it. I've won two matches and I'm feeling well. I'm going to probably play my match on the center court, maybe an evening match," said Berdych of the match. "To play against Roger (Federer), especially at the Olympic Games, we will see how it goes."

"It's a fantastic next match. I'm going to try my best to bring in a good result."

After the Athens triumph, the Czech lost all six meetings against the Swiss, but given the poor condition Federer has now been going through, the result would be unpredictable.

Rafael Nadal, the incoming men's number one, also progressed well in the second half as he beat former world number one Lleyton Hewitt of Australia 6-1, 6-2.

In a match billed the match of the day, Hewitt committed 34 unforced errors and only converted on one of his six break opportunities.

After the Olympic tennis event, Nadal will take the number one spot that has been held by the Swiss mogul for an awe-inspiring 259 weeks. Despite placing the Olympics second to Grand Slams, the 22-year-old will not let the best chance of completing the Golden Slam slip away.

He will meet Russian Igor Andreev in the third round.

"Andreev hits the ball very hard, has a big forehand and a good serve. He played well a couple of weeks ago in Toronto. I defeated him there and I will try to do it again," Nadal said.

While Hewitt's Olympic campaign is not over just yet as he meets Nadal again in the second round of the men's doubles on Wednesday.

Earlier, American Williams sisters both enjoyed brief work.

Serena Williams needed only 44 minutes to see off Australian Samantha Stosur while Venus Williams subdued Czech Iveta Benesova 6-1, 6-4.

Serena will take on 12th seed Alize Cornet from France, who dismissed a vociferous home crowd before outclassing China's Peng Shuai 6-2, 6-2.

"Well, I think she's really talented. I think she's playing well. I look forward to it. I haven't played her in a while and never played her on hard. It won't be easy, and I love a challenge," Serena said of her next opponent.

Also in women's draw, Italian Francesca Schiavone outclassed eighth seed Agnieszka Radwanska from Poland, 6-3, 7-6(6) and Denish sensation Caroline Wozniacki knocked out 10th seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-3.

Wozniacki, who has just won her first career title in Stockholm one week ago, will take on fifth seed Elena Dementieva in the round of 16.

"I mean every round is very strong and every player is very good. We play here to represent our countries, that's great. So I have to play my best to win every match, but right now I just want to celebrate that I won today. I will think about my next match tomorrow," she said.

Russian sixth seed Dinara Safina and ninth seed Vera Zvonareva and second seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia all came through the second round.

In men's part, third seed Novak Djokovic and 12th seed Fernando Gonzalez of Chile came through while fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko from Russia was knocked out of the tournament.

Besides, French 10th seed Gilles Simon beat Guillermo Canas of Argentina 7-5, 6-1 and came closer to a possible quarterfinal showdown against Federer, whom he beat in the second round of the Masters event in Toronto last month.

But at first he has to overcome American eighth seed James Blake in the third round.

(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2008)