It was Day Three of the Olympics yesterday, 08 10 08, and there were already quite a few shockers in both tennis and badminton events.  But before those results, here’s an update on the current medal standings. China is comfortably on top of the heap with 9 golds (Diving (2); Weightlifting (4); Judo (1); Shooting (2)) while Korea has 4 golds, and the USA rounds up the Top Three with 3 golds, 2 coming from the swimming competitions with Michael Phelps garnering 2 of the 3. Italy is tied with the USA with the same number of gold medals at 3, and Australia rounds up the Top 5 with 2 golds.

On the results of the 1st Round of Tennis on Day Three, most of the seeded players were able to move on with two upsets at hand.  On the men’s side, Great Britain’s Andy Murray bowed out of the event against Lu Yen-Hsun of Chinese Taipei.  The 6th seed came into the Olympics fresh from a victory in the Cincinnati Masters which should have given him a very good edge, but lost to the unseeded player from Taipei in straight sets 7-6 (5), 6-4.  The 5th seed David Ferrer of Spain was also taken out early by Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic in straight sets 7-6 (8), 6-2.  Other results from the Men’s side saw 2nd seed Rafael Nadal of Spain struggling in 3 sets to beat Italy’s Potito Starace 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, while World number 1 Roger Federer of Switzerland cruised past his match against Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 6-4, 6-2.  The 3rd seed, Novak Djokovic of Serbia beat USA’s Robby Ginepri 6-4, 6-4, to round out the top seeds’ First Round matches for the men.

On the women’s side, two unseeded Chinese netters caused two upsets in the draw.  3rd seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia was defeated by Li Na of China 7-6 (5), 6-4, and then her compatriot Zheng Jie dispatched the 11th seed Agnes Szavay of Hungary in three sets 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.  That’s what home court advantage can do for you! Outside those two upsets, the Williams sisters were their most dominant selves again dispatching their opponents in straight sets without allowing more than 3 game points each.  The highest seed after Kuznetsova is Serena Williams who is the 4th seed.  Her sister Venus Williams is seeded 7th in the tournament.

On to the R32/R16 of Badminton, there were also some significant upsets.  I won’t focus much on the doubles matches until the final stages, but on the singles matches, there were quite a few early seeded exits.  The most glaring was the 9th seed and defending Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia bowing out to the 17th seeded Malaysian Wong Choong Hann 21-19, 21-16, in the Round of 32.  And in an upset I expected to happen, 6th seeded Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark lost to the 10th seed Lee Hyun-il of Korea 15-21, 21-14, 21-19.  That was a very bad draw for Jonassen, as Lee, in my opinion, is the darkhorse to win this event.  He will be up against the German Marc Zwiebler, in a match he should win, to set up an amazing Quarterfinals duel between him and perennial runnerup and 3rd seeded Bao Chunlai of China.  My personal favorite, Peter Gade of Denmark, seeded 8th in the tournament, is also on a Quarterfinals collision course with World’s number 1 Lin Dan of China barring any upsets, which should be the case and will be THE match to watch!

On the women’s side, Round of 16 upsets saw 15th seed Saina Nehwal of India beat the 6th seed Wang Chen of Hong Kong 21-19, 11-21, 21-11.  The 21st seed Maria Yulianti of Indonesia ousted the 4th seed Tine Rasmussen of Denmark to the tune of 18-21, 21-19, 21-14.  All the other top seeds breezed past their matches, but unfortunately for Pi Hongyan of France (another favorite of mine), she will be up against the 2nd seed Zhang Ning of China in the Quarters and that is going to be a very difficult match for her to win   So there will be very exciting matches to look out for in the Quarterfinals for both the Men’s and Women’s matches, and should be a exciting next few days to watch!

Highlights: DAY 4: Monday 08 11 08 (697MB)
Tennis Day Three: Round 1 Results Summary
Tennis Event: Complete Schedule and Match Stats
Badminton Event: Olympic Seedings List
Badminton Day Three: Round of 32/16 Results Summary
Badminton Event: Complete Schedule and Match Stats