Murray: 'It was one of my toughest matches for a title'

Andy Murray became the first man to win back-to-back singles golds as he defeated the battling Del Potro 7-5 4-6 6-2 7-5 in a memorable contest at the Rio Tennis Centre.

Andy Murray (centre) on the Rio 2016 podium flanked by Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro (left) and Kei Nishikori (right).

Andy Murray insists the chance to make history at the Rio Olympics was far from his mind during his epic men's singles final against Juan Martin del Potro.

The Wimbledon champion became the first man to win back-to-back singles golds as he defeated the battling Del Potro 7-5 4-6 6-2 7-5 in a memorable contest at the Rio Tennis Centre on Sunday.

"The fact it hasn't been done before is, it's a very difficult thing to do," said Murray. "[But] I wasn't thinking about that when I was playing. 

"It hasn't been done before, that shows it's very hard, so I'm very proud to have done that. It hasn’t been easy because a lot can happen in four years, especially for a tennis player. You have so many events.

"Since London [2012] I've had back surgery. So many things can change. My ranking dropped a lot and I had some tough times on the court. I'm happy I'm still competing at the biggest events. I'll try and keep going."

Murray's first Olympic singles' title came in front of a partisan British crowd at London 2012, just a month after he had suffered a heart-breaking loss in the Wimbledon final to Roger Federer.

But the 29-year-old believes his Rio gold was harder to come by than the gold he earned against Federer four years ago.

"At the time, it was the first time I had ever won any major event and it was a home Olympics. So it was an amazing couple of weeks for me, especially after losing in the Wimbledon final just a few weeks before," he added.

"But for me this had been much harder than London. The match in the final there was fairly straightforward. Whereas tonight, anything could have happened."

Asked where the two golds rank in a career that has also yielded three Grand Slam titles and a Davis Cup success with Great Britain, Murray responded: "I don't know. It's not really for me to say.

"I do know tonight is one of the hardest matches I've had to play for a big title. I think the US Open final I played when I won my first grand slam against Novak [Djokovic] was very hard.

"But tonight I found it really difficult emotionally, it was tough physically. There were so many ups and downs in the match. It was one of the toughest matches I've had to play to win a title, for sure."