Rio 2016 Olympics tennis results: Andy Murray creates history with second consecutive gold medal

Andy Murray became the first player to win back-to-back Olympic men's singles tennis titles after an epic four hours and two minute battle with Juan Martin Del Potro, as the gold medal match of Rio 2016 ended with the man from Great Britain crying tears of relief and joy.

This was a match that will not go down as a classic, purely because this was a final that, while having all the drama of a weekly soap, was littered with errors and mistakes. It was a match that had two players fighting fatigue and the elements to try and land up on that top of that podium.

Murray eventually prevailed in four sets, winning 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5, with it giving the Scot his second consecutive gold medal at the Olympics, after his heroics in London 2012 on the All England courts.

These courts in Rio are not quite as hallowed as the ones in London, but for the sheer drama of it all, there will be plenty that the surface would have soaked in. Murray will revel in the fact that he has created history and a year that looked like being absolute torture to begin with, having lost two Grand Slam finals to Novak Djokovic, is now looking like one to savour.

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The 29-year-old has now won Wimbledon and the Olympic gold medal in 2016, and with the US Open to start at the end of this month, Murray will go into the final major of the year in peak form and confidence.

Del Potro, who beat Novak Djokovic in the first round and Rafael Nadal in the semifinal, had to settle for silver, but if this is a sign that the Argentine's injury worries are behind him, it is great for men's tennis.

Kei Nishikori took the bronze medal, after the man from Japan beat a spent Nadal 6-2, 6-7 (1-7), 6-3. The Spaniard, though, still goes back with a gold medal, having won the men's doubles title with Marc Lopez.

The women's doubles gold medal went to Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, after the Russia pair beat Switzerland's Timea Bacsinszky and Martina Hingis 6-4, 6-4 in the final.

The mixed doubles title was won by Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock, who edged Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram 6-7 (3-7), 6-1, 10-7 in an all-American gold medal match.

India's Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna could not clinch the bronze for their country, going down to Czech Republic's Lucie Hradecka and Radek Stepanek 6-1, 7-5.