Four years ago in London, Andy Murray was left holding the gold medal after firing his way past Roger Federer to claim the prize. He is out in Rio now to defend that gold medal and with the field weakened because of injury withdrawals from Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka, along with this year’s Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic pulling out because of fears over the Zika virus, the Gold Medal match is expected to come down to a shootout between Murray and Djokovic.
Murray goes to Rio on the back of a confidence boosting Wimbledon title this summer and really only Djokovic should be standing in his way. Murray opens his Olympic title defence with a game against Viktor Troicki against whom, Murray has won all seven previous meetings. Murray, who is the flag bearer for Great Britain in the opening ceremony is one the opposite side of the draw to Djokovic and so they would be set for a showdown in ethical.
Djokovic opens his account against former US Grand Slam winner Juan Martin del Potro, who beat the Serbian in the London 2014 Bronze Medal match. Djokovic, should he go on and claim the title would achieve the rare feat of completing a Golden Career Grand Slam, having won each of the four Grand Slams and Olympic Gold (not necessarily in the same year).
So if the final comes down to Murray v Djokovic, then what does the head to head tell us? Djokovic holds a 24-10 match record over Murray so the world number one is clearly going to go into the tournament (which runs over three-set matches) as red hot favourite. But Murray has closed the gap a little bit and the head to head is 2-2 over the last four meetings, Murray taking wins in the 2012 US Open and the 2016 Wimbledon finals. So it’s open and especially so over three sets. The Rio 2016 Olympic Tennis will be played on hard court surprisingly, and not clay and we would side with Murray going all the way and claiming gold again.
There could be more success for Murray at the tournament as well, because he will be in the doubles tournament with brother Jamie and could join Heather Watson in the mixed doubles event as well. Murray won silver with Laura Robson in the 2012 Olympics.
Olympic Men’s Tennis Outright Winner Odds
Novak Djokovic 10/13, Andy Murray 5/2, Rafael Nadal 12/1, Kei Nishikori 14/1, Juan Martin del Potro 33/1, 40/1 bar
