Murray and Robson enter doubles mix

Andy Murray (GETTY IMAGES)

Andy Murray and Laura Robson will team up to play in the Olympic mixed doubles competition. Britain's world No 4 has not played a competitive mixed doubles match for more than six years but such is the 25-year-old Scot's determination to win an Olympic medal that he has entered this week's tournament here at the All England Club.

Murray said he would have played in the mixed doubles, for which the entries were announced yesterday, even if he was still in the men's doubles which he and his brother Jamie were knocked out of in the first round. "Obviously it would have been a lot of tennis to play, but like I'm sure a lot of the athletes are saying, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to try to win a medal at your home Games," he said.

Mixed doubles returns to the Olympics this week after an absence of 88 years. The last champions, in 1924, were the Americans Dick Williams and Hazel Wightman.

Murray needed only 61 minutes to beat Jarkko Nieminen 6-2, 6-4 under the Centre Court roof as rain again interrupted the day's programme. He now plays Marcos Baghdatis who beat France's Richard Gasquet 6-4, 6-4.

Robson, provided a tough test for Maria Sharapova before losing 7-6, 6-3.

France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Canada's Milos Raonic 6-3, 3-6, 25-23 in a remarkable contest.

Novak Djokovic, having struggled to beat Fabio Fognini in the first round, looked much more comfortable in beating Andy Roddick 6-2, 6-1. "It was a perfect match in every sense," Djokovic said.

Venus Williams, who has already won three Olympic golds, crushed Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak 6-1, 6-3 in just 63 minutes to book a place in the third round against Germany's Angelique Kerber, who swept aside Hungary's Timea Babos 6-1, 6-1.