2021 Olympics women’s tennis gold medal match: How to watch online

A wild Olympic tennis tournament on the women’s side is set to come to a close with the gold medal match.

Normally a star-studded affair, the women’s tennis draw at the Olympics has been shaken up quite a bit by upsets. Japan’s Naomi Osaka, the heavy favorite and the woman who lit the Olympic cauldron during the opening ceremony, was upset in the third round while top seeds like Australia’s Ashleigh Barty and Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka were bounced early.

We are now left with an unexpected pairing in the final tonight between No. 9 seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and unseeded Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic. Bencic, who is currently ranked 12th in the WTA rankings, has been pushed hard to reach this point by winning three consecutive three-set matches to reach the final, including a 7-6, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina in a semifinal match that lasted two hours and 44 minutes.

The more improbable story belongs to Vondruousova, who is ranked 42nd in the WTA rankings and has already knocked off three seeded players on her way to the final. The headliner was her third-round shocker over Osaka, where she took out the heavy favorite in straight sets, but Vondrousova’s dominant performance against No. 4 seed Elina Svitolina in a 6-3, 6-1 straight-set victory put her in a position to claim the biggest win of her career.

Neither player has won a Grand Slam but both have fared well on the hardcourt slams, with Vondrousova reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open in 2019 while Bencic peaked by reaching the semis at the U.S. Open two years ago. Winning Olympic gold could be a career-defining highlight for these women.

How to watch the tennis women’s singles gold medal match at the 2021 Olympics

• Date: July 31
• Time: Approximately 6:00 a.m. ET
• Venue: Ariake Coliseum
• TV: NBC Olympic Channel
• Streaming: NBC Olympics, Peacock, FuboTV