World number two Andy Murray became Britain’s greatest ever tennis player by winning his second Olympic gold medal in Rio 2016 after an epic battle against Juan Martin del Potro in Sunday night’s Men’s singles final.
The match was a tense one to watch and both players gave it there all but it was defending Olympic champion and recent Wimbledon winner Murray who overcame the heat and rowdy crowd to win the four hour match 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5. This second olympic gold medal adds to Murray’s two Wimbledon (the first Wimbledon title for a Brit in seventy-seven years) and one US Open Grand Slam titles as well as being part of the Davis Cup team that made history winning the event for the first time in seventy-nine years and of course he led team GB out at the Olympic opening ceremony as the flag bearer.
Victory may have come in the singles but he couldn’t match his London 2012 Mixed Doubles silver medal that he won with Laura Robson. Murray and partner Heather Watson were defeated 6-4 6-4 in the quarter-finals against Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna from India. The other British pair Johanna Konta and Jamie Murray lost in first round and the gold medals winners were Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock.
Spain’s Rafael Nadal finished fourth overall in the singles event but he won gold in the doubles with partner Marc Lopez after they beat Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau from Romania in the final. The Murray brothers were knocked out of the Men’s doubles in the first round. The Women’s gold medal was won by Russia’s Ekaterina Makanrova and Elena Vesnina.
Photo used courtesy of www.lta.org.uk
Totally Tennis 