The Briton broke the Nishikori serve twice early on and took the opening set with an ace on his serve.
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Andy Murray guaranteed himself a medal at Rio 2016 with a comfortable 6-1, 6-4 victory over Kei Nishikori.
“The last four months has been the best period of my career”, Murray told reporters after the match.
“Andy gave me a lot of pressure and my concentration just wasn’t there to beat him”, said the fourth seed.
Learn about three-time Grand Slam victor Andy Murray, reigning Olympic men’s singles gold medalist and current world no. 2.
The American Tennis player Steve Johnson also helped Murray by his faulty errors who committed both 36 unforced and forced errors in the match.
Del Potro, the conqueror of Djokovic in round one, saw off Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut 7-5 7-6 (7/4) to continue his fairytale run after three wrist operations.
Murray won four successive games as his opponent exhausted to win the third set 6-2. She will compete in the final for what may be her country’s first medal of the Games, and its first ever gold.
But the Briton will have his work cut out for him today. He was able to wear down Del Potro’s weaker backhand and frequently drew the worn out Argentine into the net with deftly placed drop shots as the contest wore on.
Nadal, a 14-time Grand Slam champion, earned the singles gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Games, and added a doubles gold on Friday night, teaming with his good pal Marc Lopez.
Nishikori will still have the chance to become the first Japanese man to win an Olympic tennis singles medal since Ichiya Kumagae at the 1920 Antwerp Games, however, when he faces Spain’s Rafael Nadal in Sunday’s bronze-medal match.
“I just congratulate Del Potro for a great, great event for him”, Nadal said after the loss. I’ve not played my best this week but I have found a way to win.
The Rio Olympics 2016 has been a hard time for the two other members of the men’s tennis world top five players competing in the men’s singles category after world no. 1, Croatia’s Novak Djokovic, and world no. 5, Spain’s Rafael Nadal, lost earlier to lesser-ranked players.
Nadal, a 14-time major victor, leads the head-to-head with the 2009 US Open champion by 8-4. Will Murray be able to defeat world No. 1 Novak Djokovic? With a third win over a Grand Slam victor, he’ll be gold.
The 34th-ranked Puig won a decisive third set to go through 6-4 1-6 6-3.
But Nishikori battled, saved all set points and won six points on the bounce including the final point to progress to the semifinals 7-6 (6).
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To reach the final, Puig had already defeated two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in the semi-finals along the way. Hingis and Bacsinszky will face Makarova and Vesnina for gold today.
