It was Day Four of the Olympics yesterday, 08 11 08, with almost no upsets compared to the day before in men’s basketball and badminton, but with a few tennis seeds dropping out. The current medal standings saw China improving its lead over the USA by 6 golds, but with the USA taking the lead in total medal count while moving firmly into 2nd place over Korea with 7 total golds. Most of that success is credited to Michael Phelps who now looks to make Olympic history by going for a record number of golds today (10) in the 200m butterfly and the 4 x 200m freestyle relay. Phelps has tied the Olympic record for number of golds won with NINE already, shared only by four other athletes in history, and looks to break it with his 2 opportunties today. Korea improved to one more gold but dropped to 3rd place, while Germany moved to 4th place with 4 golds, and Italy rounds up the Top 5 with 3 golds.
On Day 2 of Men’s basketball, Croatia continued its strong play as it beat Russia by 7 points and improved to 2-0 in Group A. Lithuania are likewise at 2-0 as it continued its success by crushing Iran by 32 points behind yet another huge game from Linas Kleiza 
who scored 22 points on 8/11 shooting. The last game of the night saw Argentina recovering from its opening night loss by dumping Australia to go 1-1 rounding up Group A. Four of the five Argentinians playing in the NBA (Ginobili, Scola, Delfino, Oberto) all scored in double figures and shot over 50% each to ensure the victory.
In Group B, Germany lost by 23 points to Greece who were led by Spanoulis with 23 points while playing great team defense shutting down Nowitzi and Kaman, who were held to 13 points and 4 points, respectively. Wow. The USA also breezed through their match against Angola with yet another great display of stifling defense and moved to 2-0 to lead Group B. And in the most exciting game of Day 2, Spain needed overtime to beat China, on a come from behind victory. China led by as much as 14 points when the 4th quarter started and even had the lead with a minute remaining. Gasol led Spain with 29 points, while Yao Ming had a disappointing 11 points, and his compatriot Yi Jinlian playing yet another horrible game scoring just 4 points in 37 minutes of action. That is a shame. Greece moves to 1-1 along with Germany in Group B, while China drops to 0-2 alongside Angola, and the USA is on top with an expected 2-0 card along with Spain.
MEN’S BASKETBALL DAY TWO RESULTS:
Group A
CROATIA 85 (2-0) – RUSSIA 78 (1-1)
LITHUANIA 99 (2-0) – IRAN 67 (0-2)
ARGENTINA 85 (1-1) – AUSTRALIA 68 (0-2)
Group B
GREECE 87 (1-1) – GERMANY 64 (1-1)
SPAIN 85 (2-0) – CHINA 75 (0-2)
USA 97 (2-0) – ANGOLA 76 (0-2)
The 2nd Round of Tennis began on Day Four, there were a few upsets yet again. On the men’s side, 2nd seeded Spaniard Rafael Nadal pounded Lleyton Hewitt of Australia on what was an unexpected drubbing. It was slated to be a tough baseline match but Nadal proved to be far too superior for Hewitt closing the match at 6-1, 6-2. 3rd seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia easily beat Rainer Schuettler of Germany 6-4, 6-2. There were 2 upsets though, as 9th seeded Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland was thrashed by Austria’s Jurgen Melzer 6-4, 6-0 in
a little less than an hour. And 4th seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia fell to Paul-Henri Mathieu of France 7-5, 6-3.
And on the women’s side, a few disappointing seeds lost, especially Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia who waved goodbye to the Olympics as she was beaten by Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-1, 6-3. Other seeded casualties included 8th seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland who lost to Francesca Schiavone of France 6-3, 7-6 (6) and 13th seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland losing to Sybille Bammer of Austria 6-4, 6-4. And the Williams sisters again crushed their respective opponents in both their singles matches as well as their women’s doubles match and look very strong in winning gold for each of those events.
On to the Round of 16 in Badminton, as the expected seeds to pull through to the 
Quarterfinals did not disappoint. Peter Gade of Denmark was pushed to 3 sets and almost lost the match on the second, but still managed to beat Shoji Sato of Japan 19-21, 22-20, 21-15 to set up a duel with World’s number 1 Lin Dan of China. Whew, that was close! Lin Dan destroyed Park Sunghwan of Korea 21-8, 21-11 and continued his great form moving towards his match against Gade. In other matches, Korea’s Lee Hyun-il continued his strong play and beat Marc Zwiebler of Germany very easily 21-13, 21-11 and set up that expected matchup with Bao Chunlai of China who beat Wacha Przemyslaw of Poland in 3 sets 21-11, 19-21, 21-13. And to round out the men’s results, 2nd seeded Malaysian Lee Chong Wei totally overpowered Lithuania’s Navickas Kestutis 21-5, 21-7. The women’s singles Quarterfinals will start today and the results will be posted on tomorrow’s highlights.
Highlights: DAY 5: Tuesday 08 12 08 (697MB)
Basketball Day Four: Day 2 Results Summary
Tennis Day Four: Round 2 Results Summary
Tennis Event: Complete Schedule and Match Stats
Badminton Event: Olympic Seedings List
Badminton Day Four: Round of 16 Results Summary
Badminton Event: Complete Schedule and Match Stats
