Britain's Andy Murray remains on
course to win back-to-back Olympic tennis gold medals after beating
Japanese fourth seed Kei Nishikori in the semi-finals.
The Scot
won 6-1 6-4 and will play Juan Martin del Potro in Sunday's gold-medal
match (19:00 BST) after the Argentine beat Spain's Rafael Nadal.
Del Potro, ranked 141st in the world, won 5-7 6-4 7-6 (7-5).
World number two Murray, 29, is attempting to become the first player to win two Olympic singles titles.
He won his second Wimbledon - and third Grand Slam - last month.
"It's
obviously not an easy thing to do, that's why it's never been done
before," said Murray about the prospect of another gold medal.
"I'm going to give my best effort and I'm happy I'm guaranteed the medal, but the goal is obviously the gold."
After
coming through two gruelling matches to reach the last four, Murray
dominated against Nishikori, breaking his opponent twice to win the
first set in 30 minutes.
The Briton was unhappy to receive a code
violation in the second set as he argued with umpire Carlos Ramos, but
he remained in control of the action on court.
Nishikori appeared to wilt in the Rio heat as he dropped serve midway through the second set with a dreadful game.
Murray
served his way to an unexpectedly simple victory, winning arguably the
point of the tournament, a 23-shot rally, to set up a third match point.
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