RIO DE JANEIRO: Rafael Nadal won his second Olympic Games gold medal on Friday and took a step closer to a third by reaching the Rio singles semi-final.
Spanish great Nadal and longtime friend Marc Lopez defeated Romania’s Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau 6-2, 3-6, 4-6 in the men’s doubles title match.
Nadal, the 2008 singles champion in Beijing, is just the fourth player to win gold in singles and doubles after Serena and Venus Williams and Chile’s Nicolas Massu.
Earlier, the 30-year-old defeated Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the singles quarter-finals.
He faces Juan Martmn Del Potro of Argentina on Saturday for a place
