Singles, Men

The favorite was Spain’s Rafael Nadal, who was the hottest player on the ATP Tour in 2008, and was poised to displace Switzerland’s legendary Roger Federer from the #1 world ranking. Nadal had recently won the French Open (as he always did) and Wimbledon, and had a 32-match winning streak that was ended at the Cincinnati Open, his final tournament before the Beijing Olympics. Both Federer and Nadal won their first three matches, but Federer was then upset by American James Blake in the quarter-finals. Blake then lost to Chile’s Fernando González in the semis in three sets, while Nadal advanced to the final with a difficult three-set win over Serbia’s Novak Đoković. Đoković was world ranked #3, but was not yet the dominant force in tennis that he would become in the next few years.

González was hoping to match his countryman, Nicolás Massú, who had won the Olympic singles gold in 2004, but the final was relatively easy for Nadal, who defeated González in straight sets, although it was not a runaway, winning 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-3. The next day, Nadal advanced to become the #1 ranked player in the world, displacing Federer, who had been ranked #1 for a record 237 consecutive weeks. In the third-place match Đoković dispatched Blake with ease in straight sets to win the bronze medal.