Thursday, Aug. 19, 2004 | 9:55 a.m.
SUN WIRE REPORTS
ATHENS, Greece -- It all began ominously enough, with Venus Williams getting called for a foot fault, then double-faulting to lose her first service game.
Not much later, the 2000 gold medalist was out of the Olympics.
As was Andy Roddick. And the top-seeded doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan. Chanda Rubin and Lisa Raymond, too.
"Just a pretty rough day for Americans," U.S. coach Zina Garrison said.
Merely 1 1/2 weeks ago, the U.S. tennis squad appeared loaded, with four past No. 1s and major champions slated to play: Roddick, the Williams sisters, and Jennifer Capriati. After two injury withdrawals, and Wednesday's one-defeat-after-another disaster, the medal hopes are rather limited.
A day after top-ranked Roger Federer lost, apparently easing Roddick's path to a medal, the U.S. Open champion was beaten 6-4, 6-4 by No. 16 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile in the third round. Williams lost to Mary Pierce of France by the same score.
"I would have liked to have done better and even win the event," said Williams, who made 51 unforced errors and was broken to end each set. "Now, I just have to learn from my mistakes."
For the first time since tennis returned to the Olympics as a medal sport in 1988, no U.S. woman will win a singles medal. Rubin lost to No. 2 Amelie Mauresmo of France 6-3, 6-1, and Raymond was eliminated by Alicia Molik of Australia 6-4, 6-4.
At night, Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu paired up to upset the Bryan twins 7-5, 6-4.
They weren't all sent home Wednesday, though.
Mardy Fish got past Max Mirnyi of Belarus 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, and Taylor Dent beat Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 6-4, 6-4 to reach the singles quarterfinals. And Martina Navratilova and Raymond advanced in doubles when their opponents, Mauresmo and Pierce, pulled out.
On a day when the withdrawal of Greek sprinters Konstantinos Kenteris and Katerina Thanou dominated the headines, the U.S. disaster on tennis was one of the big stories in the competition.
Nevertheless, the United States led in overall medals with 29 at the end of Wednesday's events. China was second with 22 and Austalia third with 16.
Aussie swim star Ian Thorpe failed in his bid to become the first swimmer to win gold at the 100-, 200- and 400-meter freestyle races. Van den Hoogenband, the world record holder and defending champion, won the 100-meter final in 48.17 seconds, passing South Africa's Roland Mark Schoeman in the last 25 meters.
Thorpe, who already won the 200 and 400 meters, came back in the latter part of the race to win bronze -- his fourth medal of the Games.
"There was so much pressure, especially for myself," Van den Hoogenband, of the Netherlands, told Dutch national broadcaster NOS. "When they announced my name before taking off, I knew this one was mine."
It was the 26-year-old Dutchman's third Olympic gold after his two successes in Sydney four years ago. American Michael Phelps, with three gold medals so far, set an Olympic record of 1:58.52 minutes in advancing to today's final of the 200-meter individual medley.
American Paul Hamm clinched the men's overall gymnastics gold medal with a 9.837 score on his final event, the horizontal bars.
Hamm beat South Korea's Kim Dae Eun by 0.012 points after the American rallied from a fall on the vault.
American Kimberly Rhode won gold in the women's double trap-shooting, while countryman Tyler Hamilton, who dropped out of the Tour de France because of back pain, won the men's cycling time trial.
Japan's Kosuke Katajima won the 200-meter breaststroke in an Olympic record 2:09.44 minutes to help the country to eight gold medals, its best since 1984. Five of Japan's golds have come in judo.
Russia's Irina Korzhanenko won the first track and field event, taking gold in the women's shot put. The event was held at the ruins of Olympia, the site of the original Olympic Games in ancient Greece.
Korzhanenko threw a season's-best 21.06 meters, which was 1.47 meters farther than silver medal-winner Yumileidi Cumba of Cuba.
In the men's event, Yuriy Bilonog of Ukraine edged American Adam Nelson to the gold medal in the closest-ever margin in Olympics history. The two tied at 21.16 meters, and Bilonog won because his second-best throw beat Nelson, who had five fouls.
The U.S. won the 800-meter women's freestyle relay for the third consecutive time, breaking swimming's oldest world record. The team of Natalie Coughlin, Carly Piper, Dana Volmer and Katlin Sandeno took 7:53.42 to knock more than four seconds off the old mark set in 1987 by East Germany.
Australia's Jodie Henry swam her 100-meter freestyle semifinal in a world record 53.52 seconds. Defending champion Inge de Bruijn of the Netherlands also made the final, recording the second-fastest time. In the women's 200-meter butterfly final, world record holder Otylia Jedrzejczak of Poland took gold in 2:06.05 minutes.
In weightlifting, Hanna Batsiushka of Belarus set a world record for the snatch in the women's 63-kilogram category, hoisting 115 kg. She finished second in the overall competition to Nataliya Skakun of Ukraine.
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