With this win, Somdev won his second gold from the tennis competition, and seventh for India, having already captured yellow metal in the men's doubles with Sanam Singh.
No Indian player had played in the gold-medal match in the men's singles before Somdev, world number 106, and the country had three bronze medals to show so far at the Games.
Leander Paes ( Hiroshima in 1994), Mahesh Bhupathi ( Bangkok in 1998) and Prahlad Srinath (Bangkok in 1998) had won those three bronze medal in men's singles.
In total, Somdev won three medals at this edition of the Games as he had earlier won a bronze in team event as well.