“I really had an opportunity to truly enjoy andappreciate my gold medal probably more than a lot of my other trophies”, said Serena.
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But the honour of leading in Team GB’s delegation could eclipse it all – which says quite a bit.
“This is my third Olympic Games and it is a very special competition for me”, he added. “They’re obviously two guys who are great players and capable of winning at events like this, so it’s a great shame they aren’t here”, he said.
Women’s road race world champion Lizzie Armitstead, meanwhile, has blamed “an emergency family situation” for the missed test that triggered a UK Anti-Doping charge.
Murray follows on from fellow Scot, six-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy, who led the team out at London four years ago.
The 29-year-old two-time Wimbledon champion has been chosen to lead out Team GB for Friday’s spectacle at the Maracana Stadium.
But on Wednesday evening, during a team ceremony held at British House in Rio, his first experience of carrying the flag ended in haphazard fashion as he almost planted the flag smack bang into the head of Princess Anne.
“I remember when I was in Beijing, although I didn’t perform well there, it was just nice being surrounded by the best athletes in your country, seeing them coming back with their medals and having done well feels a lot more like a team environment”.
Andy Murray will open the defence of his Olympic singles title against Serbia’s Viktor Troicki in Rio on Sunday.
Murray has travelled to the Rio Olympics without his family but insisted fear of the Zika virus was not the reason for his wife’s absence.
Before injury forced him out of the Olympics, world number three Roger Federer had said that he was intending to stay in a hotel rather than with the Swiss team.
Though a tennis player’s legacy is shaped far more by Grand Slam victories than Olympic success, Murray can absolutely point to the 2012 games in London as a the defining moment of his career.
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Japan tennis star Kei Nishikori is hoping to take advantage of his medal chances at the Rio Olympics after the withdrawal from the event by a number of top players.
