(Sports Focus) Andy Murray defends Olympic title after epic final against Argentine Del Potro (updated)

Andy Murray of Britain became the first player to win two gold medals in the 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, joined Charles Winslow of South Africa and British Josiah Ritchie on a record two Olympic medals in the men's singles.

World number two Murray had a wonderful Olympics at Rio which started with being selected as Britain's flag bearer in the opening ceremony and finished having the flag raised at the victory ceremony.

"Getting to carry the flag in the opening ceremony was an amazing experience... To finish it with a match like that as well, it was obviously very emotional. Until the end it's been a buildup of emotions over the last 10 days or so, and I'm just very happy I was able to get over the line tonight," said the three-time Grand Slam winner.

Murray also paid tribute to his opponent.

"He obviously played, at times tonight, he played extremely well. He had done amazing to get back to playing and competing at this level.

"All of the issues that he's had with his wrist. Mentally, I can only imagine how frustrating that must have been to keep going through the same problem. Having to try and come back," he said.

Former world number four Del Potro never expected he could go this far after a wrist injury forced him rest a long time and his world ranking dropped to the 141st.

"I didn't expect to do like this. When I saw the draw and my first opponent, Novak Djokovic, I said 'ok, it's going to be a short tournament for me', but at the end of the day, it's an honour to play the number one in the world," said the 27-year-old who produced one of the tournament's biggest surprise beating the Serbian world number one 7-6 (7-4), 7-6(7-2) in the first round.

The Argentine player's brilliant run to the final earned him appreciation from the Brazilian fans.

"I had a great match then I kept winning every day and the crowd made me cry every night. I think that was the key to keep going and never give up. Today I made a great final, but Andy deserved to win in the end," he said.

"It was like a dream. I never saw anything like that in other courts, (other) tournaments. The crowd had something special with me during the whole tournament and also the Brazilian fans were cheering for me with too much respect. That's strange (laughs), but I think the people made a fantastic tournament and they deserved to see good tennis from us," Del Potro said.

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 titles 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