Andy Murray has moved to just one win away from winning his second consecutive Olympic gold medal after brushing aside an erratic Kei Nishikori 6-3, 6-4.
It was an emphatic start to the match by the defending champion as he bullied Nishikori around the premier stadium at the Olympic Tennis Centre. Applying pressure from the onset, Murray was awarded his first break for 3-1 after a long rally resulted in a shot from his rival drifting long. The focus was there for the Brit, who shouted his usual ‘let’s go’ phrase to spur him on in the match. Murray’s power wasn’t the only issue for Nishikori, it was also his brick-wall defence that aided him to extend his lead to 5-1 after an unsuccessful smash from the Japanese player. Sealing his dominance, Murray grabbed the first set with his first ace of the match.
The display from Murray on the court was almost overshadowed by a heated confrontation between him and the umpire, Carlos Ramos. Receiving a warning for slow play, the world No.2 received a second after calling it ‘stupid umpiring’.
“You want to be the star that’s fine.” The Brit said to Ramos.
Murray’s impressive start to the match was encouraging, but was in no way reassuring for his camp. In his previous Rio encounters against Fabio Fognini and Steve Johnson, the Wimbledon champion suffered a mid-match setback. Fortunately for Murray those scenarios were in the past and it was Nishikori who stumbled once again in the second set. In a service game that will give him nightmares, Nishikori produced four consecutive unforced errors to hand break No.3 to the Brit.
Nishikori’s blunder was fatal to his gold medal chances against a solid Murray. The below-par play from the former US Open runner-up raised questions about what was going wrong. Some said it was a mental meltdown and some speculated that it could be due to an injury issue. Nevertheless, Nishikori’s woes failed to overshadow his opponent’s supremacy.
Serving to become the first man in history to reach back-to-back Olympic singles finals, Murray faced some late resistance as two match points came and went. The Brit was able to triumph on his third chance due to an unsuccessful return from his opponent.
The world No.2 sealed the victory with 15 winners, 3 aces and 76% winning service rate. In the final he will play either Rafael Nadal or Juan Martin del Potro.
