And now Murray has two Olympic golds.
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Nadal was aiming to become the first man ever to win two Olympic golds in singles, after winning the title in 2008 at Beijing.
Del Potro’s silver goes alongside his bronze from four years ago.
Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova won women’s doubles bronze yesterday with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over compatriots, Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka.
At London in 2012, Murray won a singles gold and mixed doubles silver.
The crowd roared “ole ole ole” as Murray walked to the side of the court to greet fans, many of whom were clad in Argentine soccer shirts and had been screaming against him all evening.
“It hasn’t obviously been easy because a lot can happen in four years”.
“It would mean a lot, obviously”, Murray said after beating fourth-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-1, 6-4 to stretch his winning streak to a career-high-tying 17 matches.
The first set saw Nishikori serve up three aces and win on a massive 73 percent of his second serves.
“Tonight was one of the hardest matches I have played”, Murray said in the bowels of the tennis stadium, a British flag draped round his shoulders. “I had some good points in the second set and I felt I was putting him under pressure, but I want to cut the unforced errors out tomorrow”.
In the battle between Del Potro and Nadal, the players traded long, bruising rallies to split the first two sets, and each broke the other’s serve in the final set. Nadal came up short in the tie-break.
Murray took a 5-2 career advantage over 2012 bronze medallist del Potro into the final and he was quickly in the ascendancy, breaking for a 2-0 lead.
By contrast, del Potro comes into the gold medal event on the back of a bruising, but thrilling, encounter with Rafael Nadal which went the distance in the Rio heat. Since London I’ve had back surgery, I’ve gone through some tough times on the court as well.
Both men tightened up as the match moved towards its climax, with Murray wasting his first match point on the del Potro serve by netting a return. The Spaniard has shown tremendous grit throughout the Rio tournament after months without training. Playing his first competitive tennis after a 73-day hiatus due to a wrist tendon injury, his performance has many hopeful that better things could be on the way later this summer.
“I didn’t expect to reach the final, beating Djokovic and Rafa”, del Potro said, “but I did, and I get a medal, and it’s unbelievable for me”. “My job is to try to keep that going now and keep up the consistency I’ve had”.
If he wins the tennis Rio 2016 gold, he would become the first player in Olympic history to win back-to-back in the singles category.
Later Saturday, German second seed Angelique Kerber takes on Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig for the gold medal. She was able to hit ground stroke winners from all over the court, often painting the lines, and leaving Kerber, the world’s No. 2 female player, struggling to effectively deploy her signature, punchy counter-attacking style of play.
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They lost 6-7 (3/7), 6-1, 10-7 to United States compatriots Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock.
