BEIJING  - The Williams sisters cruised into the second round of the Olympic Games tennis singles on Monday, while Indian hope Sania Mirza was forced to retire hurt.
Number four seed Serena, the eight-time Grand Slam champion and a doubles gold medallist from Sydney in 2000 with sister Venus, but making her Olympic singles debut after missing Athens with a knee injury, beat Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-3, 6-1.

India’s Sania Mirza brought up one of her best moments at Wimbledon late on Monday evening as she went through to the quarterfinals in the company of her American partner Bethanie Mattek. Sania and Mattek fought back from a set down, levelled the match, and then opened up a 2-0 lead when their opponents, Akgul Amanmuradova from Uzbekistan and Darya Kustova from Belarus conceded the match.