The Olympics often boasts some superb narratives when it comes to the tennis events as players converge on the world’s biggest sporting festival.
Gold medals can prove hard to come by for some who even in their peak singles form could not move to the top step of the podium.
However, some of the finest moments of some careers have come at the quadrennial competition and this piece will look at the four greatest moments of the tennis at one of sport’s showpiece competitions.
Murray wins back-to-back gold
After losing an agonising Wimbledon final in 2012 to Roger Federer, Andy Murray would return to the All England Club for the London Olympics in a bid to make amends for that defeat.
Overcoming a tricky first round in Stan Wawrinka comfortably, the Great Britain representative maintained his form to progress to the quarterfinals against Nicolas Almagro without dropping a set.
The Scot was untroubled again, taking down Almagro 6-4 6-1 before dispatching Djokovic in a tight 7-5 7-5 encounter in the semis to set up another showdown with Federer for the gold.
This time he would do the dismantling, overawing a fatigued Swiss star who defeated Juan Martin del Potro 3-6 7-6 19-17 in the semifinals in the longest Olympics match in history.
The 6-2 6-1 6-4 win would be the sign of things to come for Murray, who would win his maiden Grand Slam two months later at the 2012 US Open.
Fast forward four years and Murray was the Wimbledon champion heading into Rio 2016 and one of the favourites for the crown.
del Potro had beaten Djokovic again in the first round, Rafael Nadal was far from his best and Federer was injured with a knee, the planets were seemingly aligning for the Scot.
Winning his first two matches in straight sets, epic tussles against Fabio Fognini and Steve Johnson followed as he edged his way to the final four.
Kei Nishikori would await in the semi but again Murray proved too strong taking it 6-1 6-4 to set up a showdown with del Potro, who defeated Nadal in a final set tiebreak to book his place in the gold medal match.
Splitting the first two sets, the defending champion would raise his level even higher as he stormed to another gold with a 7-5 4-6 6-2 7-5 victory to become the first player to win back-to-back singles titles at the Olympics.
Puerto Rico hails Puig
Heading into Rio 2016, Monica Puig had won just a solitary WTA title and was unseeded in obscurity.
The then 23-year-old defeated Polona Hercog in the opening contest before making a humungous statement with a 6-3 6-2 win over 14th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round.
Roland Garros champion Garbine Muguruza was no problem either, dispatching her 6-1 6-1 before replicating the scoreline in her quarterfinal against Germany’s Laura Siegemund.
Petra Kvitova was next, and the test was far greater, but the Puig power was enough to see her through to the decider with a 6-4 1-6 6-3 win.
Angelique Kerber would await in the final, the form hard court player of 2016 by some margin having won the Australian Open in January (she would also go on to win the US Open the next month).
But the Puerto Rican was undeterred, taking the opening stanza 6-4 before Kerber reciprocated to force a one set shootout for the gold.
Puig’s level skyrocketed from there, demolishing the German in the decider to take it 6-1 and fall to her knees in disbelief, her second title was an Olympic gold.
Not only that, but it was her country’s first ever at the competition, making her a national hero.
Too hot to handle
Roger Federer may never have won singles gold, but the two-time Switzerland flag bearer has walked to the top step of the podium at the Games.
That came in 2008 where he and his good friend Stan Wawrinka would make an unlikely run to the men’s doubles title at the Beijing edition of the tournament.
Somehow seeded fourth, the Swiss duo powered through their opening three matches to set up a mouthwatering semifinal showdown with one of the greatest doubles pairings in history of Bob and Mike Bryan.
The Bryan brothers had just defeated Australians Lleyton Hewitt and Chris Guccione 6-4 6-3, who were in good form themselves having just knocked out Tommy Robredo and eventual singles champion Rafael Nadal.
However, Federer and Wawrinka were unfazed, clobbering the Americans 7-6 6-4 to meet Sweden’s Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson in the gold medal match.
The Swiss pair took the opening two sets to put one hand on the title before the Swedes forced a fourth in a tiebreak.
Both Grand Slam champions in their careers, they dug deep in the fourth to conquer the Olympics to gain one of the ultimate prizes in world sport.
But the celebration has become even more iconic, with Wawrinka pretending to be on fire and Federer having to put it out in one of the great Olympic tennis scenes.
Graf’s golden slam
Tennis was back at the Olympics for the first time since Paris 1924 and heading into Seoul 1988 there was only one name on the minds of fans around the world, Steffi Graf.
Having just competed the incredibly rare and difficult calendar Grand Slam nine days prior to the event at the US Open, Graf travelled to South Korea as the heavy favourite.
Relatively untroubled in the lead up to the quarterfinals, the German would face a significant test against the Soviet Union’s (now Latvian) Larisa Savchenko.
Taking the first comfortably, Savchenko managed to rally and force an unlikely third in which Graf regained the momentum to move through to the semifinals.
The USA’s Zina Garrison would be no match for her as she looked ahead to Argentina’s Gabriela Sabatini for gold, a rematch of the final in Flushing Meadows a fortnight prior.
Sabatini, the third seed, would win her maiden major in 1990, but was under scrutiny for not being able to salute at big events and would be out for revenge against the player that also defeated her in the Roland Garros semifinal that May.
However, it was not to be, as Graf blazed through her counterpart 6-3 6-3 to become the first player to win the elusive calendar Golden Slam.
To this day she remains the only able-bodied player to achieve the feat in a record that could stand the test of time.
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