Olympics: Rafael Nadal Takes Gold in Men's Tennis

Rafael Nadal capped a magnificent summer by winning the gold medal in the men's singles tennis in Beijing. Nadal eased to a straight sets victory over Chile's Fernando Gonzalez, winning 6-3, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3. The 22-year-old Wimbledon champion, who was second in the Olympic seedings, got off to a flying start when he broke Gonzalez in his first service game of the match. The rest of the first set went with serve with Nadal taking the set 6-3.

The second set was much tighter, and Gonzalez had two set points on the Nadal serve at 6-5. He then made two forehand errors to let Nadal off the hook and the Spaniard took the set to a tie-break, which he won with ease. By this stage Nadal could taste glory and broke the Chilean serve to love in his second service game. From there he was unstoppable and served out the match to take the gold medal.

Nadal, who will finally overtake Roger Federer as world No1 when the next ATP rankings are announced, wins Spain its first ever Olympic tennis medal.