Rafael Nadal crushed former world number one Lleyton Hewitt 6-1 6-2 at the Olympic Tennis Centre yesterday before Roger Federer gave El Salvador's Rafael Arevalo a tennis lesson he will never forget.
Dogged Australian Hewitt tried everything he knew to contain Spanish powerhouse Nadal but he proved no match for the 22-year-old who is looking to add Olympic gold to the French Open and Wimbledon crowns he has won this year.
While Nadal faced a familiar foe, Federer had probably never heard of Arevalo who arrived on Centre Court with a ranking of 447. The Swiss duly won 6-2 6-4 but Arevalo played a full part in an entertaining tussle played in a crackling atmosphere.
Chilean Nicolas Massu's hopes of emulating his incredible run to the singles title in Athens four years died at the hands of Argentine David Nalbandian, who won 7-6 6-1.
Nikolay Davydenko became the highest-ranked men's casualty so far when he fell to 7-5 6-3 to Paul-Henri Mathieu, one of three Frenchmen into the third round.
Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, made no mistake when he saw off Germany's Rainer Schuettler 6-4 6-2.
American sisters Serena and Venus Williams rolled on towards a likely gold medal showdown with easy second-round wins in the women's singles.
Serena needed just 44 minutes to blow away Australian Samantha Stosur 6-2 6-0 and shortly afterwards on Centre Court Venus beat Czech Iveta Benesova 6-1 6-4.
China's Zheng Jie and Li Na raised the decibel levels when partisan crowds roared them into the third round. Zheng outlasted Spain's Nuria Llagostera Vives 6-7 6-1 6-4 before Li beat Japan's Ayumi Morita 6-2 7-5.
After Russian third favourite Svetlana Kuznetsova's demise on Monday, two more women's seeds fell. Slovak Daniela Hantuchova, seeded 10, was beaten by Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki 6-1 6-3 and Polish hope Agnieszka Radwanska lost to Italian Francesca Schiavone 6-3 7-6.
New world number one Jelena Jankovic showed no signs of a calf strain when she opened the evening session with a a 7-5 6-1 defeat of Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko.