James Blake of the United States reacts after defeating Roger Federer of Switzerland, 6-4, 7-6 (2) during the men's singles competition yesterday - AP

BEIJING (AP):

HEAVY RAIN across Beijing forced Olympic events to be cancelled or postponed yesterday, including a five-hour delay to the start of tennis matches. Roger Federer and the Williams sisters probably wish they'd never started - all three stars lost.

Federer's bid for his first Olympic singles medal ended when he lost to American, James Blake. With the sort of lacklustre performance once unthinkable for Federer, he was eliminated in the quarter-finals 6-4, 7-6 (2).

In a tournament that had been upset-free through three rounds, Serena and Venus Williams also lost. No. 5-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia, who won a silver medal in Sydney in 2000, raced to a 5-0 lead in the final set and held on to beat Serena 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Venus Williams, who won gold medals in singles and doubles at the 2000 Games, was beaten 7-5, 7-5 by China's Li Na.

Washed out

The rain washed out rowing, canoeing and kayak whitewater events at Beixiaoying Town near Beijing and affected baseball and softball, with games suspended or called off by thunderstorms and lightning.

Only soggy beach volleyballers played through the heavy showers, watched by pockets of loyal fans in rain gear.

There was a different weather problem in Qingdao, site of the sailing competition. For the second day in a row, lack of wind in southern China forced all racing to be called off.

China continued their domin-ation of gymnastics. After winning the men's and women's team events, Yang Wei took the men's all-around title that had eluded him for eight years.

Yang, the two-time defending world champion, finished with 94.575 points, nearly three points ahead of Kohei Uchimura of Japan. Yang had finished second to Alexei Nemov in 2000 and fell apart at the Athens Olympics.

Perfect

"Today was perfect," Yang said. "I felt tired before the competition, but after it I feel relaxed."

Germany won their third gold of the equestrian competition with a victory in team dressage.

Du Li of China rebounded from an earlier defeat, winning gold in the women's 50-metre, three-position rifle event. Chiara Cainero of Italy won gold in women's skeet shooting, beating Kim Rhode of the US and Christine Brinker of Germany in a shoot-off.

Andrea Minguzzi of Italy was the surprise winner of the Greco-Roman wrestling 84kg gold medal, defeating Zoltan Fodor of Hungary.

World championship

Tuvshinbayar Naidan of Mongolia holds up his gold medal after winning the men's judo 100kg half heavyweight division final. - AP

Minguzzi, who upset 2004 gold medallist Aleksey Mishin of Russia in the quarter-finals, was 45th in last year's world championships and has never finished higher than 18th in four world championship appearances.

Mijain Lopez of Cuba, the dominant big man in Greco-Roman wrestling since the Athens Olympics, beat rival Khasan Baroev of Russia to win the 120kg gold medal. Another Russian, Aslanbek Khushtov, took gold in the 96kg class.

Ukraine's fencers won the team gold medal in women's sabre and China's Zhang Juan Juan defeated South Korea's Park Sung-hyun 110-109 to win the gold medal in women's individual archery.

Yang Xiuli of China flipped her first four judo opponents then won in an overtime decision over Yalennis Castillo of Cuba to take the gold medal in the women's 78kg division.

Gold medal

Mongolia's Tuvshinbayar Naidan won the men's 100kg class, defeating Kazakhstan's Askhat Zhitkeyev. It was the first gold medal ever in the Olympics for the sparsely populated and landlocked country in east-central Asia.

The US beat the Netherlands 7-0 in a baseball game that was called off after eight innings following a second rain delay. The Dutch protested the decision because they had loaded the bases in the ninth inning with no outs, but the protest was denied.

Canada led the US softball team 1-0 in the fourth inning when rain forced players from the field. They'll resume the game today with the defending champion American's 16-game Olympic winning streak on the line.