No golden slam for Fed

Britain's Andy Murray demolished Roger Federer 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 in the Olympic men's final yesterday to win his first gold medal and avenge his Wimbledon final defeat against the world number one.

Just four weeks after breaking down in tears when Federer shattered his hopes of a first Wimbledon title, Murray returned to centre court to rout the Swiss great in just one hour and 56 minutes.

The 25-year-old Scot, beaten in three Grand Slam finals by Federer, has been in superb form all week, but even he hadn't dreamed he would win gold in such emphatic style.

"This is one of the biggest wins of my life," Murray said. "I have had a lot of tough losses in my career and this is the best way to come back from the Wimbledon final.

"I didn't expect this at the start of the week. I thought I'd go deep into the tournament but I felt so fresh today. It's amazing."

For Federer, a doubles gold medallist with Stanislas Wawrinka in Beijing in 2008, this final was meant to be the crowning glory of his career.

Instead, Federer, who will be 35 when the Rio Games come around in 2016, may wonder if he will ever achieve a "golden slam" of all four majors and singles gold.

Federer suggested tiredness had taken its toll after his four-and-a- half hour semi-final win over Juan Martin del Potro.

"It was a tough tournament. Maybe I was a little emotionally drained and left a bit too much out there in the earlier rounds," he said.

"But Andy did play very well, he was much better than I was."

The decorum of genteel Wimbledon was forgotten with no quarter given.

Murray failed to add a second gold as he and 18-year-old Laura Robson were beaten 2-6 6-3 10-8 (tie-break) by number one seeds Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi of Belarus, after playing brilliantly to take the first set.