Tennis Day 6 Review: Nadal advances to gold medal match

(BEIJING, August 16) -- Rafael Nadal of Spain guaranteed himself an Olympic medal and Fernando Gonzalez of Chile is sure to score his second consecutive Olympic medal by reaching the Men's Singles final on Friday, August 15, day six of Olympic Tennis. Dinara Safina of Russia joined the three other semifinalists in Women's singles, while Serena and Venus Williams of the United States will attempt to follow Roger Federer of Switzerland in reaching the Doubles final to rectify their disappointing Singles results.

Men's Singles semifinals

With a stunning 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 victory over No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia, Nadal set himself up the opportunity to spend the day before he officially becomes the World No. 1 attempting to win an Olympic gold medal in Singles.

Fernando Gonzalez of Chile will deliver another Olympic medal in Tennis to Chile after securing a final berth with a 4-6, 7-5, 11-9 quarterfinal victory over James Blake of the United States. Gonzalez won the bronze medal in Singles and the gold medal in Doubles with compatriot Nicolas Massu at Athens 2004. No man has won successive Tennis medals in Singles at the Olympics since Charles Winslow, who captured gold at Stockholm 1912 and bronze at the Antwerp 1920 Games.

The No. 8-seeded Blake, playing in his first Olympics, will hope to assuage his disappointment by scoring the Men's Singles bronze medal when he takes on Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the bronze match on Saturday, August 16.

Women's Singles quarterfinals

Dinara Safina of Russia became the last woman into the Women's Singles semifinals when she fought off tenacious No. 2 seed Jelena Jankovic 6-2, 5-7, 6-3. No. 6 seed Safina, the recent French Open finalist, has come into her own this year and has put herself into medal position.

Safina, making her Olympic debut, joined compatriots No. 5 seed Elena Dementieva and No. 9 seed Vera Zvonareva in the semifinals.

Men's Doubles semifinals

Simon Aspelin and Thomas Johansson of Sweden rewrote the history books on Friday night when they moved into the Men's Doubles final with an action-packed 7-6 (6), 4-6, 19-17 win over Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra of France. The 19-17 final set is the longest set ever played in Men's Olympic Tennis.

Roger Federer guaranteed himself an Olympic medal when he teamed up with fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka to upset top seeds Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan of the United States 7-6 (6), 6-4.

Clement and Llodra will pair off against the Bryan brothers for a shot at the Doubles bronze medal on Saturday, August 16.

Women's Doubles quarterfinals

No. 2 seeds the Williams sisters are attempting to salvage their trip to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games by scoring a medal in Doubles after both fell in the Women's Singles quarterfinals on Thursday.

Serena and Venus won two Doubles matches on Friday to reach the Doubles semifinals -- defeating Morita Ayumi and Sugiyama Ai of Japan 7-5, 6-2 first and then No. 7 seeds Elena Vesnina and Vera Zvonareva of Russia 6-4, 6-0, to put themselves in medal contention. The sisters won the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Women's Doubles gold medal.

One semifinal will be an all-sister affair when the Williamses face Ukraine's Bondarenko sisters -- Alona and Kateryna, who defeated Flavia Penetta and Francesca Schiavone of Italy in the quarterfinals on Friday.

China's hopes were kept alive in this event when Yan Zi and Zheng Jie defeated Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 3-6, 7-5, 10-8, in a match that finished shortly after 3:30 a.m. (UTC/GMT +8) on Saturday. China won the gold medal in this event in Athens through Li Ting and Sun Tiantian

No. 4 seeds Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain ended US player Lindsay Davenport's dream of pairing with newly naturalized US citizen Liezel Huber to win an Olympic medal when they prevailed 5-7, 7-6 (6), 8-6.

Ruano Pascual is the reigning Women's Doubles silver medalist from the Athens 2004 Olympic Games where she teamed with the now retired Conchita Martinez of Spain.

The Tennis tournament at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will continue at the Olympic Green Tennis Center on August 16.