Britain’s Andy Murray became the first tennis player to successfully defend an Olympic gold medal with a 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory over Juan Martin del Potro.
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Nishikori pounced on the second break-point opportunity he saw of the match to go up 3-2 in the first set.
Murray, the world No 2, put in a strong performance on Centre Court, particularly on his own serve, to book his place in a second straight gold medal encounter.
“I think I played really well”, Murray told reporters after the match.
“I am not good [against] him”.
The second set began with the same script of the first.
“It’s obviously a very hard thing to do, hence why it’s not been done before”.
Andy Murray looks to retain gold against a resurgent Juan Martin del Potro, victor already over Novak Djokovic and Rafael nadal, at the Olympic Games on Sunday, August 14, as The National sports editor Graham Caygill takes you through the action in Rio on Day 9.
They nearly went to a fifth set, too, because del Potro served for the fourth at 5-4, but was broken there and again in the final game.
Del Potro, a bronze medallist in London four years ago, was inconsolable at the end.
Andy Murray made it a golden summer Sunday after adding the Rio 2016 Olympic men’s tennis gold medal to his Wimbledon triumph. But the Briton will have his work cut out for him on Sunday. He knocked out Novak Djokovic, the No. 1 player in the world, in the first round, and he has kept his level quite high. He came into Sunday’s match with a 1-9 career record against Nadal.
Nadal won the men’s doubles gold with Marc Lopez on Saturday.
Whitlock took two gold medals as he followed up becoming the first British male to win an Olympic medal on the floor with a second gold on the pommel horse 75 minutes later with Smith in second in a Team GB 1-2.
Nishikori won his fifth break point to lead 3-1, a critical game that Nadal could not find a way back from. Twenty-two-year-old Puig, ranked No. 34 in the world and the underdog in the match, has a chance to win Puerto Rico’s first ever gold medal at a Games.
Nishikori seemed to be overwhelmed by the fight Murray, the world No. 2 and this year’s Wimbledon victor, brought to the court.
Since winning the US Open in 2009, the same year he also reached the last four at Wimbledon and Roland Garros, he has struggled in the grand slams.
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Both players played superbly in the decider, with Nadal breaking back at 5-4 down with some wonderful shots – but it was eventually in vain as the Argentine won the decider 7-5 in the tie-break. Safarova and Strycova had defeated three-time champions Serena and Venus Williams in the first round but were beaten by Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the semi-final.
