Huge serves and unnerring accuracy from the baseline, especially on the backhand, meant Hewitt could not impose himself on the rallies.

BBC: Safin humbles Hewitt

Flyweight Yafai, who received a bye into the second round in Beijing, was always trailing and struggled to impose himself on the fight as he slipped to a 9-3 defeat.

BBC: DeGale eases into quarter-finals

But their Achilles heel this season has been the absence of a sustained cutting edge up front, and so it proved again as Jermaine Beckford struggled to impose himself on a Blues defence missing ineligible new signing David Luiz.

BBC: Chelsea 1-1 Everton (aet)

Earlier, the 30-year-old Federer showed his fighting qualities after trailing by a set and struggling to impose himself in the second where he had to save two break points on his own service.

CNN: Federer survives marathon to keep gold dream alive

"The danger is that this would create a vehicle for politicians, whether today or some time in the future, to impose regulation and obligations on the press, something Lord Justice Leveson himself wishes to avoid, " he said.

BBC: Leveson: David Cameron and Nick Clegg at odds over plans

But despite their one-man disadvantage, Irish continued to impose their authority on the game and were rewarded for their endeavours when Argentine Tiesi found himself on an overlap outside Tagicakibau and crossed over for five points.

BBC: Sailosi Tagicakibau opened the scoring for the Exiles