Serena Williams Confirms Favorite Status by Dominating Urszula Radwanska

Even though Serena Williams is only seeded fourth in the Olympic tennis tournament, she's the clear favorite to take home a gold medal. She illustrated her dominance once again with a straight-set victory over Poland's Urszula Radwanska.

The win moved the United States' best hope in singles to the third round, where she will meet Vera Zvonareva of Russia. Based on the way she's played through two rounds after winning Wimbledon a couple weeks ago, it's hard to imagine her run ending anytime soon.

Williams started her Olympic journey by crushing former top-ranked player Jelena Jankovic. Monday's victory was more of the same, with Williams punishing the ball like no other player on the women's side can until Radwanska was resigned to defeat.

When Williams is able to find top form, there isn't anybody in the tournament who can stop her, plain and simple. Her combination of power, accuracy and, perhaps most importantly, mental toughness make her a nightmare opponent.

In an era where it seems like players on the women's side come and go in the blink of an eye, Williams has been able to remain at or near the top for more than a decade. Her ability to handle the pressure and expectations is a major reason why she's been so successful over that time.

When you combine her belief in herself and her all-around ability, it's not hard to figure out why she has 14 Grand Slam singles titles. That includes five on the All England Club courts for Wimbledon, which is also serving as the Olympic venue.

Players like Radwanska walk onto the court knowing they will need to play perfectly to knock off Williams. And sometimes even that's not enough.

Monday's match was a perfect example. Radwanska didn't play terribly, and she certainly didn't beat herself, with just nine unforced errors. But Williams had too many weapons for her to deal with, and it showed in the end.

In order for somebody to beat the American superstar, it's going to take an extraordinary effort, some help from some Williams' errors and a little bit of luck. In other words, a perfect storm of circumstances all happening together.

She's just playing that well right now. The biggest threats in the draw are Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova and Petra Kvitova, simply because they have good power. But it's going to take a lot more than that alone to beat Williams.

As it stands right now, it sure looks like everybody else is playing for silver.