Murray, following the gruelling encounter, then struggled to hold back the tears as the crowd inside the Olympic Tennis Center rose to their feet to salute the reigning champion.
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Murray became the first tennis player in Olympic history with two singles gold medals, winning his second in a row by wearing down Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 at the Rio de Janeiro Games in a back-and-forth 4-hour final Sunday.
It is Murray’s misfortune, although he would not put it in such terms, to be playing in an era where three all-time greats of the game have dominated the biggest prizes. Based on how he beat Djokovic, then Rafael Nadal, del Potro’s powerful forehand might be better than ever.
“Today was a very up and down match, very stressful. He should be very proud of his efforts”.
“It hasn’t obviously been easy because a lot can happen in four years”. “But I couldn’t. I was choking up the whole time”.
“I’ll try and keep going”.
His ranking was too low to gain direct entry into the field at the U.S. Open, the year’s last Grand Slam tournament, which starts in NY on August 29.
“If he stays fit”, Murray said about del Potro, “there’s no reason why he can’t be up at the top of the game”. No one has managed it since Djokovic in the French Open final two months and 18 matches ago.
“Against Andy”, del Potro said, “you never know if you’re going to win your serve”. But soon afterward, del Potro developed problems with his right wrist.
It stood up remarkably well but Murray prodded and probed and eventually broke him down, after four hours and two minutes of brutal, sometimes brilliant tennis.
The final was decided in a dramatic fourth set where del Potro was ahead twice with breaks to go 2-1 and 4-3 ahead.
Murray had Davis Cup captain and close friend Leon Smith cheering him on in Brazil but his coach Ivan Lendl and mother Judy did not travel.
Murray carried Britain’s flag during the opening ceremony in Rio, and on Sunday evening, he saw it raised in the stadium while he sang along to “God Save the Queen”. I lost quite a few Grand Slam finals.
“The last flight out of here is back to Portugal tonight so I’ve got to be on that”, he said.
“It was one of the toughest matches that I’ve played to win a big event, for sure”. Murray has participated in the four most significant matches of the year: all three Grand Slam finals (losing to Djokovic at the Australian Open and French Open, then beating Milos Raonic at the All England Club) and the Olympic final. “Physically it was hard, there were so many ups and downs in the match”.
MEDAL COUNT: Despite what happened in singles and doubles to the Williams sisters, and even though the country’s highest-ranked man, John Isner, opted to skip the Olympics, the US wound up with the best haul: one gold (Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock in mixed doubles), one silver (Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram in mixed) and one bronze (Sock and Steve Johnson in men’s doubles).
But the world number two had time to pay tribute to Del Potro.
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“To get himself back to playing at this level, fighting for the biggest events and competing against the greatest players in the world is an incredible credit to him”.
