Olympics: Only Nadal Can Stop Imperious Federer

It is illustrative of the high regard with which the Chinese hold tennis that when the producer of the opening ceremony looked for stars among the athletes massed in the Birds Nest he directed his cameras first at Rafael Nadal, second at Roger Federer, and third, and most remarkably, at Andy Murray. Tennis is growing in China and, one suspects, it's about to grow a whole load bigger.

Its cause will be helped should Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal make it to Sunday and what might be a career-defining showdown over five sets in the Beijing Coliseum, the Chinese having knocked out a concrete Wimbledon just for this tournament. Everything is new and pristine. The stadium itself has huge V shaped spaces studded around the top tier which aid ventilation and afford views, in so far as the haze allows any views, of Beijing. It will provide a perfect setting for one of the clashes of the Games, and the collision is still very much on after both the contenders recorded relatively facile victories yesterday.

Nadal was the first to perform, against the suitably named Italian Potito Starace. The humidity was brutal. "I had to change my shirt every ten minutes, it is difficult, no," he said afterwards. He had little difficulty acclimatising, racing through the first set 6-2, combining astonishing court craft and speed.

Starace, to his credit, responded with a mighty effort winning three straight games and the second set. "I am happy with my tennis. I play very well in the second set," he said. Nadal might have suffered a minor blip in concentration but there is little that can be done when the ball is being pinged past you on either side.

Normal service was resumed in the final set as Nadal closed out the match 6-2, 3-6, 6-2. "I had a shot in the third at 15-40 [2-4] and I tried to make a winner," said Starace, "but I miss by 10, 15cm. That's tennis."

Federer, meanwhile, had to cope with the 200kph-plus serves of Dmitry Tursunov from Russia. He too acclimatised quickly once he had established a rhythm against the serve. The ease of his play was demonstrated by a pinpoint overhead from the baseline being followed by a running forehand pass to win his opening game in the second set. 200 girls in matching yellow shirts chanted "Roger". Some innocuous lift muzak was played over the loudspeaker system. And a strange electrical hum, quite similar to the one generated by the Aswan Dam, zizzed from one side of the arena to the other.

Federer's game went from strength to strength as he unpicked the Russian with a series of sliced backhands and then unleashed those sweeping ground-strokes which indicate his imperial game is near its zenith. Certainly he played better in the first two sets of this tournament than he did in the first two sets of the Wimbledon Final.

He closed out the match with an ace, celebrated by hitting a ball through one of the Vs and politely applauded the crowd before lobbing his headgear in and initiating a headband fight.

Federer looked supremely comfortable and at home. In this form the only man capable of disturbing his peace is Nadal.