RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Andy Murray is closing in on becoming the first tennis player with consecutive Olympic singles gold medals.
Murray moved into the Rio de Janeiro Games final by easily beating Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-1, 6-4 on Saturday, stretching his winning streak to a career-high-tying 17 matches.
Serving for the victory, Murray came up with a tremendous down-the-line backhand passing winner on a 23-stroke exchange, stumbling as he hit the shot and winding up sitting right there on the green court. When he saw the ball landed in, he raised a fist, then stood and motioned to the crowd for more noise.
That gave him his third match point, which he converted with a service winner. He yanked off his white hat and bellowed.
The No. 2-seeded Murray earned a gold in singles and a silver in mixed doubles for Britain at London in 2012, and now is guaranteed to leave Brazil with no worse than a silver. The three-time Grand Slam champion will face Rafael Nadal of Spain or Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina in Sunday’s final.