He also exceled in excelled in doubles, winning his semifinal match alongside Spanish partner Marc Lopez. Bellucci hasn’t had much recent success after being a top-30 player many years ago, but he’s enjoying the moment and is kind of unsafe considering he has all of Brazil behind him.
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The former Olympics gold medalist in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, has been battling with a left wrist injury throughout the tournament.
Rafael Nadal is already guaranteed a medal in the doubles with Marc Lopez should they win or lose the gold medal match against the Romanians Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau. The 10th-seeded Spaniard denied Gilles Muller, 6-4, 7-6 (4).
Rain led to all Olympics tennis in Rio de Janeiro being postponed on Wednesday, including singles matches for Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal.
Despite his uncertainty, Nadal’s looked quite sharp in Rio and has yet to lose a set in the shortened format. “I’m in the quarter-finals, which is very good news”, said Nadal. “Two weeks ago, I really didn’t know if I will have the chance to be here and compete in this Olympic Games, because the practice (time) was nearly zero for two months”.
Murray raced to a 5-0 lead in the first set and was sitting comfortably with a 2-1 advantage in the second. “We just play three or four Olympics in the career so for me it is very special to have a chance to play at home”.
Murray, who now faces Steve Johnson of the United States, is favourite to clinch a second straight gold medal following the first-round exit of world number one Novak Djokovic to Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro.
“It’s obviously a little bit different playing for an Olympic medal, versus a Grand Slam”, said Keys, an Australian Open semifinalist in 2015.
He broke for 2-1 before the Spaniard levelled at 2-2.
Women’s top seed and defending Olympic champion Serena Williams also crashed out in a straight sets loss to Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, although obviously struggling with a shoulder injury, the World No. 1 seemed out of sorts in her match. “The wind was swirling everywhere, so it was just really tough conditions for us to play well”. He said that Rio will be his last event to attend, which obviously means his fans won’t see him playing on a court again in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
But Murray stopped the rot, reeling off the next six games by mastering the tricky windy conditions better than his fiery opponent.
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The British pair, silver medallists in London four years ago, made the most of their late call-up, beating David Ferrer and Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-3, 6-3.
