Internet Desk: Former world no.1 and 2008Olympic Gold Medalist Rafael Nadal will go for the doubles final in search of the first Gold Medal in doubles today. Pairing his friend Marc Lopez he won the doubles semifinal match yesterday. Along with that he will play the singles quarterfinal to secure his final berth.
Yesterday Nadal had to face the toughest challenge by having three matches of three segments on a same day. The 14-time major winner is playing his first tournament in two months after a wrist injury caused an early withdrawal from the French Open. After torrential rain wiped out Wednesday’s entire programme, the 30-year-old faced an epic test of his fitness and stamina.
The Spanish pair defeated Canada’s Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil 7-6(1) 7-6(4) in a tight semifinal lasting a minute over two hours, played on a packed Court 3 at the Olympic Tennis Centre. By reaching the doubles final at Rio 2016, Nadal now has the chance to become the fourth player in the modern era of tennis in the Olympics (since Seoul 1988) to own gold medals from both the singles and doubles events. In today’s final they will meet Romanian pair of Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau.
In the single’s quarterfinal qualifier match the 2008 champion defeated Gilles Simon 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 for his eighth win over the Frenchman in nine meetings. Winning the single’s third round Nadal will face Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil today.
However, the triple Rio Gold remained untouched by the tennis star as he withdrew name from the mixed doubles. Nadal was partnering French Open champion Garbine Muguruza against Lucie Hradecka and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.
On the other hand all other tennis stars struggled to advance to the next stage. Andy Murray of Great Britain reached the quarterfinal by defeating Fabio Fognini of Italy by 6-1 2-6 6-3.
In the mixed doubles also American pair of Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram faced a hard challenge from the Netherland pair of Kiki Bertens and Jean Julien Rojer. They won the match by a tie-breaker. The score line remained 6-7 7-6 until the tie-break.