Rafael Nadal, the 2008 Olympic Gold medalist had the privilege of being Spain's flag bearer during the Opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics, and on Sunday it will be serious business for Rafa as he looks to reclaim his gold medal, and he will be competing in his second Olympics and first appearance since Beijing in 2008.
Argentina's Federico Delbonis will be representing his nation at the Olympics for the first time in his career, and 2016 has been a good year for the world number 43 as he reached a career-high ranking of 33 back in May and claimed the second title of his career.
This will be Nadal's first competitive match since the second round of the French Open when he defeated Delbonis' compatriot, Facundo Bagnis in straightforward fashion, however, following his second round victory, Nadal shocked the world by announcing his withdrawal from the tournament due to a wrist injury that could have threatened his career had he continued to play on and aggravate the injury.
Delbonis will fancy his chances against Nadal as the Olympics are held in Rio, which will feel like a home event for some of the Argentine competitors since Rio is near Argentina and he could take advantage of Nadal's rustiness.
Nadal's Olympic history
This will be Nadal's second appearance at the Olympics as he missed the Games held in London at Wimbledon four years ago due to a career-threatening knee injury that ruled him out of action for eight months.
The 14-time Grand Slam was seeded second in Beijing back in 2008 and the left-handed, Spaniard was ruthless throughout the tournament, as he dropped only two sets en route to claiming the gold medal.
Nadal began his campaign against Italy's Potito Starace and he won the match in three sets, and this was followed by a more routine victory over over Australia's former world number one, and two-time Grand Slam champion Lleyton Hewitt in the second round.
The former world number one defeated Russia's Igor Andreev in the third round in straight sets, and in his maiden quarterfinal appearance at the Olympics, he defeated Austrian, Jurgen Melzer 6-0, 6-4.
Nadal's semifinal meeting was with the third seed and reigning Australian Open champion, Novak Djokovic and Nadal was victorious by defeating the Serb in three sets, and Djokovic went on to claim the bronze medal.
The gold medal match was decided in a best out of five sets match, and Nadal defeated Chile's Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 to claim his first Olympic gold medal, and 2008 was a successful year for Nadal as he won the French Open and Wimbledon too.
Nadal participated in the doubles event with his compatriot, Tommy Robredo as the sixth seeds, however, the Spanish combination lost in the second round to Australia's Lleyton Hewitt and Chris Guccione.
Delbonis' notable results
The Argentine number one reached the third round of the Australian Open in Melbourne back in January losing to Gilles Simon in straight sets, and following his third round showing, he returned to the clay courts as part of the South American, Golden Swing season, and reached two quarterfinals of the three tournaments he participated in.
Delbonis then travelled to North America to compete at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, where he recorded the biggest win of his career by defeating three-time Grand Slam champion, and current world number two Andy Murray in three sets, but lost to Gael Monfils in the fourth round.
At the Miami Open, Delbonis lost to Grigor Dimitrov in the second round, and following his showing in Miami, he returned to the red dirt by winning the second title of his career in Morocco without dropping a set.
He went on to lose in the first round of both the French Open and Wimbledon to Pablo Carreno Busta and Fabio Fognini respectively.
After his disappointing first round exits in the second and third Grand slam tournaments of the year, he went on to represent Argentina in the Davis Cup and he picked up two wins over Andreas Seppi and Fognini which helped Argentina reach the semifinals.
Their history
Nadal and Delbonis have faced off twice in their careers and both of their meetings have occurred on clay courts. The nine-time French Open champion leads their head-to-head 2-0.
The Spaniard has thrashed Delbonis in both of their encounters and their first meeting was in Nadal's first match back, from his eight-month injury layoff at the 2013 VTR Open in Chile and, Nadal won that match 6-3, 6-2.
Their second encounter was last year in Delbonis' hometown of Buenos Aires in the quarterfinals, and Nadal thrashed the Argentine, 6-1, 6-1.
Who wins?
There was continuous speculation ahead of the Games that Nadal was going to withdraw from the singles event, and be replaced by Carreno Busta, and compete solely in the doubles.
Some reports mentioned that Nadal didn't recover from his wrist injury, however, those plans of Nadal withdrawing didn't materialise, and the Spaniard announced himself that he will be competing in the singles, men's doubles and mixed doubles events which will be to the joy of the tournament organisers.
Nadal was desperate not to miss the Olympic Games in Rio and although he may not be at 100%, he will give it his all for his country.
Three of Nadal's 14 Grand Slam singles titles have come on hard courts, and Nadal has a good lefty serve which works well on this surface, and he is one of the best returners on this surface.
The Spaniard's forehand down the line over the years has been an exquisite shot of Rafa's, and although he may not produce it as consistently as before, it is still deadly when he pulls it off.
Delbonis is a left-hander like Nadal and he possesses a two-handed backhand, however, Nadal is very good against fellow lefties and, he returns well against them.
Spanish fans, Nadal fans and tennis fans in general, will be anxious to see the Spaniard's return to competitive tennis.
Nadal has dropped to number five in the world following Stan Wawrinka's run to the semifinals in Toronto at the Rogers Cup, however, he has benefitted from Wawrinka's withdrawal and his rival Roger Federer's withdrawal which ensured he will be seeded in the top three.
Nadal is drawn in the top half of the draw which includes top seed Novak Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
This match will follow the first round clash in the women's singles between Germany's Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber and Colombia's Mariana Duque-Marino, and is the second match scheduled on Court One.
Prediction: Nadal in straight sets