Rio Olympics 2016 tennis: 5 men's matches to look out for on Day-1

#1. Novak Djokovic vs Juan Martin Del Potro

Novak Djokovic’s match against Juan Martin Del Potro will perhaps be the most anticipated match of the day

A rematch of the bronze medal match of the 2012 London Olympics; it doesn’t get any better than this. While Djokovic has been a dominant figure in the sport in the past couple of years, the 27-year old Argentine has so far made a brilliant comeback after taking a brief hiatus from the sport owing to a wrist injury; having climbed from a ranking of 1042 to World No. 144 in a span of nearly six months.

Their encounter at Rio will be their 15th meeting overall and their second meeting at the Olympics with Djokovic winning 11 of their previous encounters and Del Potro having won their last meeting at the Olympics in London. The two have played many close matches earlier including a mammoth five-setter at the 2013 Wimbledon Championships. Djokovic will definitely be the clear favorite heading into the match having won the recently concluded Rogers Cup following a disappointing outing at the Wimbledon where he lost in the third round.

However, the 2009 US Open champion cannot be written off as he is a tricky opponent to beat and has proved that he can be more than a match for the top ranked players, having beaten Stan Wawrinka in the second round of this year’s Wimbledon Championships. So, will Djokovic make a winning start to his Olympic campaign or will Del Potro produce one of the upsets of the tournament? The answer is anyone’s guess.