Andy Murray defends Olympic title after epic final against Argentine Del Potro

Andy Murray became the first player to win two gold medals in the tennis men's singles event at the Olympic Games when he scraped past Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 to retain his London 2012 Olympic Games title on Sunday at the Olympic Tennis Centre.

The newly crowned Rio Games champion hugged Del Potro after the four-hour match, both men with tears in the eyes.

Both Murray and Del Potro, who also took bronze in this event in 2012, both joined Charles Winslow of South Africa and British Josiah Ritchie on a record two Olympic medals in the men's singles.

Men's doubles winner Rafael Nadal of Spain missed the podium after losing to Japanese Kei Nishikori 2-6, 7-6 (7-1) 3-6 in the bronze medal match.

"He played great during the whole match, I didn't play with the right energy during the whole match. I was too tired, especially playing not your 100% against a player like Kei is something almost impossible, but I tried my best and I want to congratulate Kei for a great event," said Nadal, 2008 Olympics singles champion.

Russia's Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova clinched the women's doubles title in the afternoon after beating Swiss pair Martina Hingis and Timea Bacsinszky 6-4, 6-4.

Vesnina and Makarova lifted the title in their second Olympic trip in one hour and 38 minutes, beating five-time Grand Slam singles winner Hingis, 35, who also has 11 doubles title under her name, and her younger teammate Bacsinszky.

The Russian pair hit 36 winners as compared with 28 from their opponents.

The Russians were happy to wind up their Rio journey from a bad start to a golden end. Vesnina and her partner was stuck at the airport for flight delays in Montreal, where Vesnina was competing with Makarova at the Rogers Cup in preparation for the Olympics. She spent her 30th birthday in the airport terminal there on Aug. 1.

Vesnina said they managed to find the silver lining from the delay.

"We had a tough trip to get here in Rio. We were really distressed in one moment, we missed our connection and we were trying to get here as early as we could because we played the final in Montreal and here we would have different courts, different balls, so we needed to get here early just to get ready.

"But this situation even helped us a little bit to get ready for everything in Rio," she said.

Hingis admitted that they were a little disappointed but said they already did their best.

"With Timea, and this week, I think it's the top position I could be and you just take it as a day and that's why I was emotional. We couldn't have done more than we did, we did the maximum of of our potential," she said. "Of course, you are a little disappointed but, looking back at the journey of what we did we can really take a positive from this week."

In the mixed doubles final, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock won an All-American fight, beating Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram 6-7 (3-7), 6-1, 10-7. Endit