Murray wins tennis gold; Nishikori beats Nadal for bronze

Great news and an inconic picture of Nishikori, looking like a secondary student, enhaloed by the Japanese flag. Another version here http://tinyurl.com/juh5z6c

Well done and well deserved by Nishikori.

Funny that it is not mentioned that after Nishikori was destroyed on the tie break of the 2nd set (7-1), losing the set, he left the court for... 11 minutes!!! (toilet? He had time to have a full shower...) Anyone who loves tennis knows that this is a DIRTY trick used to break the opponent's high confidence moment and to calm things down. 11 minutes!

Wow, Nishikori finally won something. Congratulations.

T'aint no gold, but it's a big win for him and for tennis in Japan. Well done. Was worried for a moment after the second set, but he nailed it home in the third.

Congratulations to Nishikori. However after being destroyed at the tie-break of the second set (7-1), he left the court for 11 minutes... Anyone who loves tennis knows that this is done to break the opponent's high confidence moment and calm things down. It would have been nice if he had won without using that trick... Funny that it is not mentioned here.

Well done, Mr Murray. The Scotsman could very well be Number 1 in the near future. I hope Kei can make it to Tokyo 2020, and win a bag of Majors in the meantime, but there are no guarantees and he sadly has not been blessed with the most robust of bodies, with chronic back and wrist problems.

Nadal did well to get this far. Having been out for some time with wrist injuries, he spent a lot of time on court to win the gold medal in doubles. Well done, Rafa! Hope to see you back on the tour.

vademecum, a tennis player taking a toilet break between sets is hardly news, let alone contributing to the outcome of the match. But it is news that the toilets were actually working in Rio.

Players are allowed reasonable time at the end of a set for bathroom breaks. If Nishikori took too much time then it was up to the umpire to penalize him. Nadal was peeved because the umpire was the same guy he had a run in with a year or so ago when he was refused a bathroom break. Nadal had requested that this ump never call another one of his matches.

Wow, Nishikori finally won something. Congratulations.

Nishikori's got a career record of 288 wins vs. 134 loses, eleven titles, and $13.8 million in prize money under his belt. Oh, and he's ranked 7th in the world.

He's won considerably more than most.

Clearly, you aren't really a fan and merely took this as an opportunity to be a sour puss. Thanks for that.

he's pretty young isn't it ... I think he is ready to do something great, even Andy Murray starts winning

Way to go, Kei-san ! Nice showing ! See you in Cincinnati later this week !

That tennis final was brutal. Exhausting to watch, goodness knows how Murray and delPorto managed to keep going.

Congrats to Nishikori. An Olympic bronze is a very nice result, and a well-earned feather in his cap.

LFRAgain: Clearly, you aren't really a fan and merely took this as an opportunity to be a sour puss. Thanks for that.

LFRAgain, I don't believe Wc626 claimed to be a fan. Also, I don't believe that this is a Nishikori fan site. Not sure why that's a problem.

The Original Wing,

The problem is the snarky "tone," if you will, of Wc626's original post. Lest you missed it, he noted in deadpan that Nishikori "finally won something,* impliying pretty clearly that Nishikori does not typically win.

I'm not necessarily a fan of Nishikori, but I do watch enough tennis to know that Nishokori wins his share. I'm also able to reason that if he's competing in the semi-finals of the Olympics, it stands to reason that he's won more than a few.

With Wc726's post, I found that Nishikori is currently ranked 7th in the tennis world, just as I learned that Andy Murray is ranked 2nd and Juan Martin del Potro is ranked 141st. Again, not because I'm a fan, but because I'm capable of looking that information up to make an informed post, rather than popping by to piss on the accomplishments of another for no other reason than because I can.

fxgai: a tennis player taking a toilet break between sets is hardly news

The fact that it is allowed does not mean it is fair play to do it for over 11 minutes before the final set while he was being beaten by Nadal. Is he still in the toilet or did he finally get out?

Congratulations to Murray and specially to Delpo reaching the final. Such a great player. Shame about the long injury he had. It would have been nice to see him competing more often with Djokovic, Murray, Nadal, Federer...

The fact that it is allowed does not mean it is fair play to do it for over 11 minutes

Sometimes your bowels don't give a damn what else you have going on - even if what is going on is the Olympics with the entire world watching.

Players do not go to toilet on their own. Nishikori was taken to a very distant bathroom, so it took long to come back.

On the contrary, it is fair play to permit your opponent the chance to fully relieve himself during the set break.

The set break is the only toilet chance players have, and who wants to win an important match because your opponent was bursting to dump a load and didn't take it when he had his chance?

Nadal ought to be experienced enough to deal with it, but I guess he was frustrated that he wasn't dominating the match as he would have hoped.

who wants to win an important match because your opponent was bursting to dump a load and didn't take it when he had his chance?>

lol, if that's the case, you are right. lol

However, it is still surprising that he needed to go to dump a load during a 3 set match knowing that all these pro players have routines before the match and one of them is going to the toilet. Nishikori's bowels really decided to complain at the right timing ;)

Yes, I agree, Nadal after winning 14 Grand Slams, 4 Davis Cups and 2 Gold medals ought to be experienced enough to not have been influenced by that.