Nadal wins Olympic gold

At the heels of becoming No. 1, Nadal takes gold

As if it weren't enough for Federer that he's losing his number one ranking on Monday (8/18/08), a ranking he held for a stunning 237 consecutive weeks, he now has Rafa taking another long sought after dream of his from right under his nose - Olympic gold. He blew through five opponents before taking down Fernando Gonzales in a three-set blowout in the final (the final is played best of five).

Rafa's road to gold

Rafa went through Italian upstart Potito Starace in three sets (with a hiccup in the second), 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, before rolling on to steam over Ozzie and former world number one Lleyton Hewitt 6-1, 6-2. In the round of 16 he took down Russia's forehand firepower, Igor Andreev, 6-4, 6-2, and in the quarterfinal he blew through Jurgen Melzer with a first set bagel, 6-0, 6-4. It wasn't until the semifinals where he was challenged by his nemesis, world number three, Serbian Novak ("Nole") Djokovic, that Rafa's dominant run hit a hurdle, as Dkojovic took the second set 6-1. However, in the third set, Nole missed an easy overhead, and that simple mistake was one too many. Rafa went on to finish him off in the third, 6-4. The final scoreline was therefore 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.

Rafa vs. Fernando in the final

Fernando's Gonzales entry into the final was marred with controversy from the match prior, the semifinal against American James Blake.  Read about how James loses to Gonzales in the controversial semifinal. Basically, in the third set at 8-9, the first point of the match has Blake winning a point that would have put him up the all important love fifteen. That is, if the ref had seen Blake's ball hit Fernando's racket on it's way out of the court. James had won his first ever match over (at the time) world number one Roger Federer. Gonzales wouldn't fess up, and Blake was mentally derailed for the remainder of the match.

The final was relatively uneventful, with Rafa taking down Gonzo in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6(2), 6-3. Even in the second set tiebreaker, Gonzo didn't stand a chance. Above the photo of Nadal with his trademark court "pass out" as he takes the gold.