Here are your Olympics tennis results from the Final Day, August 14.
The last day of tennis at the Rio Olympics had everything on Sunday: history, dramatic wins, and exhausting physical athleticism.
It started out with an historic all-American mixed doubles final, with Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock winning the gold against their compatriots Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram, 7-6, 1-6, (10-7).
The silver was Venus Williams’ record fifth medal in the Games, allowing her to tie the Olympic record for most tennis medals. Along with her first silver, her other medals are gold and include her singles title in 2000 along with doubles gold with sister Serena in 2000, 2008, and the last Olympics in London (2012). Out for singles and women’s doubles, this was Venus Williams’ last chance to medal in Rio and she walks away from her historic fifth Olympics with more hardware.
Battling a virus, Williams lost in the first round of singles and doubles. She decided to participate in mixed doubles rather than leave with the Games with disappointment. Her partner Ram was added to the US tennis team just a few days before the opening ceremony after the Bryan brothers withdrew. He walks away from his first Olympics with the silver.
Gold medalist Jack Sock is also the only tennis Olympian to leave these games with two medals, he won the bronze in men’s doubles with his partner Steve Johnson, beating the Canadian team of Vasek Pospisil and Daniel Nestor on Friday.
The Williams sisters were out in women’s doubles but their former opponent from decades ago, Martina Hingis, was in, and made it all the way to the final. Coming out of retirement a few years ago, Hingis has made a second career out of winning mixed doubles grand slams and did not disappoint at these Olympic Games. She and her Swiss partner Timea Bacsinszky lost to Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.
It’s been a while since Hingis played in an Olympic Games, the last time was Atlanta. In these Games both she and Venus Williams leave as silver-medalists in their respective fields.
Rafael Nadal played another grueling match, clocking in approximately 30 hours of tennis play in one week in Rio, with obligations in singles and doubles. All the marathon athletic play seemed to take its toll after his doubles gold medal win Friday night, leaving him drained in his semifinal match against del Potro and again in the bronze medal match on Sunday against Japan’s Kei Nishikori, 6-2, 6-7(1), 6-3.
After Nishikori took advantage of Nadal’s tired state, the Spaniard showed signs of the warrior tennis player that he is by breaking the world number seven twice in the second set and evened things up.
Coming to Rio still recovering from a wrist injury, the 30 year-old 14-time grand slam champion wasn’t as fit as he would have liked and has said he wouldn’t have participated in the tournament if it hadn’t been the Olympics. His euphoric doubles win with his friend Marc Lopez was the highlight for him at these Games.
Even though he showed his customary raw energy, intensity and fearless fight throughout the tournament, the amount of games he played in both doubles and singles caught up with him for the bronze match.
However, Nishikori showed nerves as he served to close the third set, but ultimately was able to close for a medal for Japan.
“I’m very happy to win, to get a medal today, even though third place. It means a lot for me to especially beat Rafa today,” Nishikori told NBC afterwards.
The last game of the day went easily into the night as Great Britain’s Andy Murray clocked in over four hours battling it out with the underdog Juan Martin del Potro. It was spectacular tennis. Both players had so much riding on the outcome and the level of play was gold-medal worthy on both sides.
Andy Murray was playing to be the first consecutive gold medalist in tennis. A flag bearer for his country, and just off of his win from Wimbledon, Murray certainly gave a performance that Great Britain could be proud of. Throughout the match, both men frequently slumped over to catch their breath after so many of the incredible rallies.
After Murray’s phenomenal first set win, Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro didn’t show any signs of the injuries that have plagued his tennis career for so long. He demonstrated his brutal whipping forehand time again and again, winning the set 4-6.
Murray’s fitness was on full display as he battled to win some of the closest points that have occurred this week, with nail-biting rallies lasting 20+ points. It was tennis played at the highest level and often the audience had no idea which way it would go. The audience was raucous throughout and had the atmosphere of watching a soccer match, with even a few pro-del Potro fans being escorted out by security for disrupting the match.
In the crucial fourth set, Murray’s fitness pulled him through and earned him his decisive second gold in singles, something no other tennis Olympian has achieved, not Nadal, neither Williams, Roger Federer, nor Stefi Graf. Considering he had been out for back surgery, his historic second gold medal is a phenomenon.
When the match concluded both men exhaustingly approached the net and embraced for a long time. They each separately moved to their chairs and buried their faces in their towels, in tears.
Murray spoke with NBC afterwards about the effort they did, mentioning the trials and tribulations both players had faced prior to coming to the Games. “Today was a very up and down match, very stressful.”
But he had admiration for his Argentine opponent. “He should be very proud of his efforts.”
Murray has been snubbed for a knighthood in the past, but perhaps with two gold medals, he will be reconsidered.
“I was very proud to carry the flag,” he said.