The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and OpinionsAndy Murray is one win away from defending his Olympic title as the Brit produced a imperious display to see off Kei Nishikori 6-1 6-4 and progress into the final. The world number two controlled the majority of the match as he dominated with his serve and aggressive groundstrokes to cruise through the first set. Even though the contest became more competitive in the second set, Murray secured a single break and it was enough for the Brit to eventually seal a straight-forward win.
In the opening set, both players were displaying high quality tennis but Nishikori was finding it difficult initially to respond to Murray’s aggressive intent, and as a result the Brit claimed the break with a powerful forehand that the Japanese player couldn’t handle. Murray consolidated the break to establish a 4-1 lead and Nishikori still was unable to resist his opponent’s incredible combination of power and depth, as he dumped an overhead smash into the net to fall behind another break. The Brit continued to serve immaculately and attack Nishikori with blistering groundstrokes, as Murray comfortably wrapped up the set with an ace to take the upper hand in the semifinal.
As the second set unfolded, there was little to separate the players as they both held serve early on, but at 2-2, an error strewn game from Nishikori was ruthlessly punished by Murray, as the world number two was gifted the break when his opponent netted a drop shot attempt. Murray though was unrelenting and did enough to hold his serve in the following game to open up a 4-2 lead, but Nishikori battled hard to reduce the deficit. The Japanese player forced his opponent to serve out the match and saved two match points, but Murray finally converted on his third opportunity to close out the victory and move into the final.
Murray’s win over Nishikori was the perfect response by the world number two, having suffered a recent straight sets loss alongside Heather Watson to the Indian pairing of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna in the mixed doubles competition.
Murray will face Juan Martin Del Potro in the singles final, as the Argentine prevailed in a third set tie-break to secure a dramatic 5-7 6-4 7-6 win over Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard will play Kei Nishikori in the bronze medal match but Nadal has already won a gold medal in Rio, as he and Marc Lopez beat the Romanian pairing of Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau in three sets to win the men’s doubles event.
On the women’s side, Monica Puig continued her remarkable run with a 6-4 1-6 6-3 victory over Petra Kvitova and Puig will meet Angelique Kerber in the final, as the German defeated Madison Keys 6-3 7-5.
