Del Potro, who entered the Olympic tournament unseeded but gained a huge boost of confidence by defeating world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the first round, earned his spot in the finals by narrowly defeating Spain’s Rafael Nadal.
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The 29-year-old world No.2 was superb from start to finish in Rio and did not face a break point in the 6-1, 6-4 victory.
Britain’s Andy Murray advanced to the men’s Olympic final with a straight sets victory over Japan’s Kei Nishikori Saturday, securing a chance to defend his title and become the first player to win back-to-back singles golds at the Games.
“Now I have to recover for Sunday”. This is something new for me.
But it will be tough for the popular Argentine and even more so after a battle with Rafa and that the final of the Olympics is played over the best of five sets rather than three.
A tame drop-shot from the baseline proved Nishikori’s undoing in the pivotal fifth game, with Murray taking his third match point when it arrived to keep his dreams alive of a double gold on the Olympic stage.
Murray had nearly twice the number of points as the Japanese, 61 to 39 and hit 15 winners to Nishikori’s 13.
The 5-foot-10 Nishikori, who was on the verge of elimination in his quarterfinal match against France’s Gael Monfils on Friday, when he had to stave off three match points, struggled against a 6-foot-3 opponent who plays as well as he does from the baseline, matches him in terms of speed and court coverage and has a much bigger serve. “I want to sort that out before tomorrow”.
“My concentration wasn’t there and I wasted a lot of points through my own mistakes”.
But the Briton will have his work cut out for him today.
And, when Nishikori netted a backhand on the next point, a delighted Murray was able to celebrate victory and at least a silver medal.
If he wins, he will become the first player, male or female, to win two Olympic singles titles. I’m not really thinking about the stuff that goes with it.
“But I didn’t give him many opportunities on my serve and I was very aggressive when I was returning, so it was a good performance”.
Nishikori has only defeated 2008 Olympic champion Nadal in one of their previous nine meetings, beating him at the Rogers Cup in Toronto past year.
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“It was an incredible experience, especially doing it with one of my best friends, with Marc, it’s something unforgettable for me, for both of us”, said Nadal.
