Wimbledon champion Nadal bags Olympic gold

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from China

Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal won the men’s singles crown while Russia underlined its tennis supremacy making a clean sweep in women’s singles event, winning all there medals at the XXIXth Olympic Games tennis competition concluded at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre here today.

Wimbledon champions Serena and Venus Williams, who were eliminated from the women’s singles, had a consolation win when they bagged women’s doubles crown.

Bottom seeded Nadal had relatively easy opponent in the final after the elimination of the top seeded Roger Federer. Taking the full advantage of that, Nadal convincingly beat Fernando Gonzalez of Chile.

Spaniard Nadal confirmed his position at the top of the world rankings as he went pass No. 12 seed Gonzalez of Chile by three sets to nil 6-3, 7-6(2), 6-3.

It was Spain’s first ever gold medal in tennis and Nadal’s eighth title for the year.

“Not in my best dreams can I have imagined this,” Nadal said after being crowned the Olympic champion.

The nail-biting second set was a feast of sublime tennis from both players. Gonzalez’s tactical backhand slice, which had been unsuccessful in the first set, was put to good use in softening Nadal’s explosive forehand as the Chilean went on the attack to match Nadal for winners.

In an all-Russian women’s singles final, Sydney 2000 Olympic silver medallist Elena Dementieva defeated teammate Dinara Safina by two sets to one to win the gold medal.

Dementieva lost the first set and managed to win the keenly contested second set which went into a tiebreaker. But she underlined her supremacy, winning the decisive third set in style to wrap up the match 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 to be crowned women’s singles tennis champion at the Beijing Olympic. Safina took the silver medal.

Earlier, Vera Zvonareva ensured a clean sweep of medals for Russia by beating China’s Li Na 6-0 and 7-5 in the play-off for the bronze medal.

Russia became the first country to capture all three medals in one event of Olympic tennis after 100 years.

The last time that a single country won all three medals in a single event at Olympic tennis competition was in 1908 when Great Britain swept the women’s singles on home turf in London. The Russians were benefited by the early exits of the Williams sisters - Venus and Serena, who made amends by winning the women’s doubles title.

Prior to compatriots Safina and Dementieva contesting the Beijing 2008 women’s singles gold medal match, Zvonareva rushed through the first set in 19 minutes as Li won just eight points. Li broke Zvonareva three times in the second set but was unable to hold her own serve to cement the advantage.

Zvonareva won three games in a row to recover from 4-5 down and wrap up the medal.

BEIJING, Sunday.