| Murray routs Federer to capture tennis gold |
LONDON Britain’s Andy Murray completed an astonishing recovery from last month’s Wimbledon heartache to thrash Switzerland’s Roger Federer and claim Olympic gold on Centre Court on Sunday.
Exactly four weeks after Federer had beaten him to claim a 17th grand slam title on the same court, reducing Murray to tears in the process, the Scot returned with an army of flag-waving fans to demolish the world number one 6-2 6-1 6-4.
Defeat virtually ended Federer’s chances of completing the “golden career slam” of all four grand slam titles and the Olympic singles crown as he will be 34 when the Games moves on to Rio de Janeiro in four years.
From the moment that Murray moved 4-2 ahead in the first set he barely gave Federer a look-in, rattling off nine games in a row to seize complete control of the final.
Murray went for the jugular in the third set, breaking for a 3-2 lead with a searing backhand and marched on to victory with chants of “Andy, Andy” ringing around the court.
Earlier, Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro overcame his marathon semifinal defeat to win bronze in the Olympic tennis men’s singles with a 7-5 6-4 victory over Serbia’s Novak Djokovic.
Del Potro, whose semifinal loss to top seed Federer on Friday was the longest men’s three-set match played in the professional era, broke late in a rain-interrupted first set to take the lead against Beijing bronze medallist Djokovic.
The number two seed fell behind early in the second set, with the tall Argentinian serving to wrap up the win in 1 hour and 48 minutes. Venus and Serena Williams became the first tennis players to win four Olympic golds after a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Czech pair Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in the women’s doubles final.
The Williams sisters had already won doubles gold at the Sydney Games in 2000 and in Beijing in 2008, while Venus claimed the singles gold in Sydney and Serena won her first individual gold on Saturday, when she crushed Maria Sharapova in the women’s final.
Venus and Serena also joined Spain’s Conchita Martinez, who won silver in 1992 and 2004 and bronze in 1996, as the only tennis players to win medals at three different Olympics.
Agencies
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