Claim: Rafael Nadal won the Olympic gold medal.

The Men 's Singles tennis competition at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing was held from August 10 to August 17 at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre . The DecoTurf surface rendered the event a hardcourt competition . Matches were in best-of-3 sets , except for the final which was in best-of-5 sets . No tiebreak was played in the final set .   Nicolás Massú was the reigning gold medalist won in 2004 Olympics in Athens . He lost to David Nalbandian in the second round . Rafael Nadal of Spain defeated Fernando González of Chile 6 -- 3 , 7 -- 6 -LRB- 7 -- 2 -RRB- , 6 -- 3 in the final . As a result , Gonzalez became the first male tennis player to win a medal in the event in consecutive Olympiads since the reintroduction of the sport in 1988 . The last Olympian to accomplish the feat was Charles Winslow , although his medals were 8 years apart , due to the cancellation of the 1916 Summer Olympics . Nadal entered World No. 1 in the ATP rankings for the first time ending Roger Federer 's 237 week streak .