Andy Murray’s Olympic gold medal win proves Scotsman using his brains to succeed

As winner of back-to-back Olympic titles, Briton has recently played his part better as a thinking player, writes Ahmed Rizvi.

Andy Murray of Great Britain looks on during the men's singles gold medal match against Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina on Day 9 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Tennis Centre on SundayShow more

The long, warm embrace at the net after the Rio men’s single final said it all.

Watched by more than 10,000 screaming, football-like fans, Andy Murray and Juan Martin del Potro had given it their all, fighting like gladiators for 242 minutes on a muggy Rio evening, punching and counterpunching, and looking completely wasted at times before miraculously finding a bit more in their exhausted reserve tanks.

“I fought to my last fingernail,” Del Potro said later in his news conference. “The crowds made me run all the time.”

Or rather, Murray made him do it.

Del Potro had used his ballistic inside-out forehand to mesmerising effect in the semi-final win over Rafael Nadal.

Murray made sure he had that particular side of the court well-covered, forcing the Argentine to look for alternate routes.

Of course, Murray did a lot more than just that in his 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 triumph to become the first tennis player in Olympic history, male or female, to win two singles gold medals.

He used the flanks to keep Del Potro running from side to side and gasping for breath, and then the Scot regularly caught his opponent in no-man’s land with some gorgeous slices and drop-shots.

To sum it up, he showed the kind of calm assurance that we have seen from his arch-nemesis Novak Djokovic in recent years.

Murray, like Djokovic usually is, was always in control and Del Potro conceded as much.

“I never felt I will win the match for sure because Andy was playing really well in important moments, and he has the experience to put the ball in that moment,” said Del Potro. “And he deserved to win, because he was smarter than me in the end of all the sets.”

Smarter is perhaps the best way to describe Murray’s tennis since reuniting with coach Ivan Lendl.

On Sunday, he regularly celebrated points by pointing a finger towards his brains and we did not see that gesture often during his times with other coaches.

Lendl, a former world No 1, was in Murray’s corner back in 2012 as well when the Briton had won his first big title: the men’s singles gold at the London Olympic Games.

Until then, Murray, though a part of the men’s Big Four, an elite club that includes Roger Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, rarely got mentioned in the same breath.

The Olympic success, and, of course, his triumph at the 2012 US Open and 2013 Wimbledon brought him into the conversation. And now, Murray has got a second Olympic singles gold, which is two more than Federer or Djokovic’s tally.

Of course, Federer has a record 17 grand slam titles and Djokovic has 12, and those majors matter more in tennis than Olympic medals.

Still, being the first to win back-to-back Olympic titles is no mean achievement.

“The fact it hasn’t been done before shows that it’s very hard, so I’m very proud to have been the first one to have done that,” said Murray.

“It hasn’t been easy because a lot can happen in four years, especially in tennis.

“You have so many since things happening since London [the 2012 Olympics]. I had back surgery since London as well. My ranking dropped a lot during that period. I’ve gone through some tough times on the court as well.”

Those tough times seem to be a distant memory now though. Since reuniting with Lendl, a week before the start of Wimbledon, Murray has won his home grand slam and an Olympic gold, which makes him the headline act heading into the North American hardcourt swing and the build-up to the US Open, which starts on August 29.

“Djokovic has played amazing tennis the last two years,” Murray said in Rio. “His consistency … You know, what I have done for like the last four months, he has been doing for like a whole year.

“So I need to find a way to keep that going, and the US Open is the next big goal.”

Can Murray achieve that target given his recent record against Djokovic, which is 2-13 since he beat him in the 2013 Wimbledon final?

With a resurgent Nadal getting back into the mix and possibly Del Potro as well, if he can get a wild card since he is ranked No 141, it should be an interesting two weeks at Flushing Meadows.

But, the last time Murray won an Olympic gold, he went on to win the US Open as well. So watch out for the Briton.

Scheduling courts a needless controversy

A teary first-round exit for Novak Djokovic and a fairy-tale finish for Monica Puig.

A super semi-final between Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro, and an even better final with 10,000 fans on their feet for most of the four-hour-two-minute epic between Andy Murray and Del Potro.

Who could have scripted a better tennis week at the Rio Olympics?

The event was a huge success, but thanks mainly to the players who showed up despite all the concerns.

The organisation did little to make them feel welcome though.

“I can’t tell if it’s a stadium or a factory ... It feels like a construction site,” Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova was quoted as saying about the Tennis Centre and she was not alone in criticising the venues.

Forced to play the doubles final on Court 3, which has only 140 seats, 61 of which are for the media, an angry Nadal said he had played “the most important match of my life on the worst possible court”.

The Spaniard was also upset about the scheduling, which forced him to pull out of the mixed doubles competition ahead of his opening match alongside Garbine Muguruza on Thursday.

He had already played two matches that day – his singles third round against Gilles Simon and the doubles semi-final alongside Marc Lopez.

Had Nadal decided to play the mixed doubles, he would have been forced to play three matches on Friday as well.

So his grievances, and indeed the complaints of every other tennis player in Rio, are legitimate.

They are not playing for prize money nor points, so the least they can expect is a decent schedule.

“It’s not fair Olympics are played during one week,” Muguruza said.

“There are many matches and playing in three draws is complicated.”

“I do not understand why they want to make things complicated when things are complicated already,” Nadal said.

“Those who make the schedule need to understand we are here to give our best because this is a unique event.”

The players, no matter how fit they are, cannot be expected to give off their best if they are playing three matches a day towards the business end of a tournament.

Hopefully, the International Tennis Federation will take heed and we will see much better scheduling in Tokyo four years from now.

Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE

Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport