The penultimate competitive day of the Olympics in tennis was actually devoted to fights for third places. And in one of them, Russian women Elena Vesnina and Veronika Kudermetova fought for bronze in mixed doubles. They were opposed by Laura Pigossi and Louise Stephanie, who became one of the main sensations of the competition. In singles, the Brazilian women occupy only 326th and 802nd places in the WTA ranking, respectively, and in doubles they do not particularly shine (23rd and 188th). However, this did not prevent them from reaching the semifinals, beating two seeded couples along the way, as well as leaving several individual strong athletes - Karolina Pliskova from the Czech Republic and Belinda Bencic from Switzerland - without hope for awards.
However, in the opening of the match one might have gotten the impression that the “magic” of the Brazilian women had come to naught. The Russians quickly made a break and took the lead with a difference of three games. Pigossey and Stephanie clearly felt ill at ease and, although they more than consistently hit the first ball (68%), they could not extract dividends from this. Looking ahead, in the first set Vesnina and Kudermetova took almost half of the rallies at the reception, and the opponents' first serve was not noticed at all, having won 15 out of 28 points on it.
Yes, there was definitely a turning point in the middle of the game. Pigossey and Stephanie came to their senses, as a result of which almost every game turned into a thriller. Moreover, the Brazilian women even made a reverse break and restored parity, but at the decisive moment the class of Vesnina and Kudermetova still affected. Even on the second try, but they were again able to succeed in the reception and take the first set with a minimal difference.
It seemed that an unsuccessful chase attempt could morally break the Latin American duo, but everything turned out exactly the opposite. Pigossey and Stephanie had an almost perfect set and allowed their rivals to earn only one break point - a minuscule for doubles tennis and very little in comparison with the previous game (seven). Vesnina and Kudermetova put up worthy resistance at the reception only in the second game, when they desperately tried to rehabilitate themselves for the missed serve, but subsequently completely wilted. As a result, only 30% of the draws at the reception remained with the Russians, which, coupled with the "advantage" in unforced errors (9: 6), prevented them from winning a medal in the shortest possible time.
What was happening in the super tie-break is extremely difficult to explain from a logical point of view. After the fiasco in the second game, Vesnina and Kudermetova briefly left the stadium to put themselves in order, and when they returned, they began to smash their opponents, and the attempts of the Brazilian women to put pressure exclusively on Veronica were unsuccessful. Seven out of nine draws remained with the Russians, which left little doubt about their success. Laura and Louise still managed to perk up a bit, but they met the first matchball, losing 5: 9.
Suddenly, the domestic duo began to make one mistake after another. Kudermetova untimely transferred along the line, allowing her opponent to drive the ball into the court without hindrance, and the most experienced Vesnina was clearly nervous and not only struck out-of-bounds several times, but also trembled on the serve. As a result, the next six points, and with them the bronze, flowed to Pigossey and Stephanie - 4: 6, 6: 4, 11: 9.
“During the entire tournament, the Brazilians were losing big, and then they started fuss, confusion. When there is no such level of play, you can only knock down the game by running and bustling. With their spirit, attitude - they did it. We did everything we could. We were more powerful: strikes, serves. Everything was fine, everything was in our direction. But on matchballs, their balls flew magnetically into the court, and ours flew out-of-bounds. It just didn't work out, it didn't work out. This is not a tragedy, but it hurts. Anything can happen, it's a sport. It's a shame. We need to get the strength for tomorrow. I know what to do. There is experience, desire and a good partner, "- quotes Vesnina" Championship ".
However, the main loser of the day was not Russian girls, but Novak Djokovic. On the eve of the Serb sensationally lost in the semifinals of both singles and mixed, having lost the chances of winning the Golden Slam - four majors and the Olympics. However, the unsuccessful series of the first racket of the planet did not end there. In the match for bronze, he fought stubbornly, but nevertheless repeated the fate of Daniil Medvedev and was beaten by Pablo Carreno-Bustoy.
At the Olympics, the Spaniard demonstrated an incredibly high level of tennis for himself, which even infuriated Medvedev. Then the Russian could not restrain himself, and at the end of the meeting he cried out in his hearts that he had never played like that in his life. Djokovic was just right to say something like that. Carreño Busta was excellent on his own serve and did not allow his opponent to realize any of the eight break points. In this he was helped by both a high percentage of hits with the first ball (70%) and seven aces. It is noteworthy that four of them fell on the final, third set - as never before.
This is not to say that Djokovic looked inexpressive, but at times he seemed a little confused. His trademark defense on the back line did not always work, as evidenced by the Spaniard's 32 actively won goals (versus Novak's 18). Yes, sometimes his trademark hits in the line still came to the rescue, but too rarely. In the end, Novak showed character and even played four match points (he did not allow another one to be realized in the tie-break of the second set), but Carreño-Busta was more motivated, more active and more stable, which brought him a well-deserved victory - 6: 4, 6: 7 (6: 8), 6: 3.
After failing alone, Djokovic still had a chance to take a medal at the Tokyo Olympics - in mixed doubles. Together with Nina Stoyanovich, they faced a difficult test by the Australian duo Ashley Barty - John Pierce, but the meeting was not destined to take place. Novak refused to compete, citing a left shoulder injury and for the third Games in a row remained outside the podium.
Thus, the women's singles category was honored to complete the program of the competition day, where all the awards were distributed. The first was a meeting for third place, in which two athletes from the post-Soviet space fought. Elena Rybakina played the first set almost perfectly and gave Elena Svitolina only one game, but later the Ukrainian was able to impose her tennis on the representative of Kazakhstan. She could not stand it and began to make a lot of inaccuracies, giving her opponent one rally after another with her own hand. In the second game, the ratio of actively scored goals to unforced errors was 19:25, and in the third - 17:20.
Rybakina should be especially offended, because she was leading with a break in both the second and third sets, but both times she missed the advantage.
At first, this led to a tie-break, where she lost with a minimum score, and then to five lost games in a row and a phenomenal comeback by Svitolina.
The Ukrainian woman was rehabilitated for a full-time defeat at the tournament in Eastbourne and won the bronze medal of the Games - 1: 6, 7: 6 (7: 5), 6: 4.
The final also turned out to be unpredictable and dramatic in its own way.
In total, Belinda Bencic and Marketa Vondrousova earned 28 break points, and the Czech woman was much more successful in this (18).
The problem is that she sold as much as the Swiss did - six, and distributed them more evenly among the parties.
And if in the second set this was enough to win, then in the first and third set it was not.
Until the end of the final game, the tennis players led two times with a break, but quickly restored parity. First Benchich managed to recoup, and then Vondrousova. And this despite the fact that Market did not look the best. When the second ball hit, she took only two points out of 113, and also made three times more unforced errors than her opponent (18). Some tennis players cannot afford that much, even in two sets. Unsurprisingly, all of this led to seven wasted chances of realizing a break, three games lost and a loss in the match. The offender Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was stronger - 7: 5, 2: 6, 6: 2.