Rafael Nadal won the Olympic men’s singles gold medal yesterday, overcoming two set points in the second set and holding every service game to beat Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-3.
The gold medal was the first ever for Spain in Olympic tennis.
Nadal was already assured of taking over the No. 1 ranking today for the first time, ending Roger Federer’s reign after four-and-a-half years.
PHOTO: AP
Nadal has won 38 of his past 39 matches, including victories over Federer in the finals at the French Open and Wimbledon.
Elena Dementieva earned the gold in women’s singles, taking advantage of 17 double-faults by fellow Russian Dinara Safina to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
In women’s doubles, Venus and Serena Williams of the US won the gold, beating Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain 6-2, 6-0. The sisters celebrated with shrieks, then shared a hug.
Men’s singles has traditionally been an upset-filled event at the Olympics and Nadal is the first player ranked in the top five to win the gold.
He took charge against Gonzalez from the start, breaking serve in the second game. Nadal did not face any break points until the 12th game of the second set, when he was down 5-6, 15-40.
Gonzalez failed to convert the set points, pushing a volley wide and putting a forehand into the net. The Chilean made five unforced errors in the tie-breaker to give Nadal a commanding lead.
Nadal ripped a backhand passing shot to break at love for a 3-1 lead in the final set and erased two more break points to hold for 5-2.
He needed four match points to close out the victory, ripping one last forehand that Gonzalez barely could reach. Nadal collapsed on his back in jubilation.
The No. 5-seeded Dementieva closed out her victory with a forehand winner, then fell to her knees before walking to net for a congratulatory hug from Safina. Dementieva, who won the silver medal at Sydney in 2000, snapped Safina’s 15-match winning streak.
“I never expected a medal — gold, silver or bronze,” Dementieva said. “It’s unbelievable. For me this is the best moment in my career. I’ll never forget it.”
Dementieva has been plagued for much of her career by a shaky serve, but it was a frustrated Safina who struggled to put the ball in play. After double-faults she flung her racket, banged it against the concrete and smacked a ball into the stands, but the tantrums failed to help.
Russia swept the medals in women’s singles when Vera Zvonareva beat Li Na of China 6-0, 7-5 to win the bronze. That victory made Russia the first nation to win all three medals in one tennis event since Great Britain did so in the 1908 women’s singles.
Tennis was not a medal sport between 1924 and 1988.
The Williams sisters improved their lifetime Olympic doubles record to 10-0. They won the doubles gold at Sydney, but did not play in Athens four years ago because Serena was hurt.
“It does mean more for me to win it with Serena, to share this kind of moment with your sister,” Venus said. “I mean, we are practically joined at the hip.”
Yan Zi and Zheng Jie of China beat Ukraine’s Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko for the bronze, 6-2, 6-2.
The women’s singles final began with only about a thousand spectators in the 10,000-seat stadium, but it was mostly full by the end two-and-a-half hours later.
Safina said she felt the toll of playing nine matches — three in the doubles competition — in the past week.
“I was not the freshest today physically,” she said. “To serve, you have to push yourself up, to jump up. And when the legs are a little bit slow, it just doesn’t go.”
In the final set, Safina broke her racket when she double-faulted three times to lose serve and fall behind 3-1. She served with a chance to reach 4-4, but committed four unforced errors and her final two double-faults.
Dementieva then served out the victory to complete the best week of her career.
NO HARD FEELINGS: Taiwan’s Lin Hsiang-ti and Indonesia’s Dhinda Amartya Pratiwi embraced after fighting to a tense and rare 30-29 final game in their Uber Cup match The Taiwanese men’s team on Wednesday fought back from the brink of elimination to defeat Denmark in Group C and advance to the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup, while the women’s team were to face South Korea after press time last night in the Uber Cup quarter-finals in Horsens, Denmark. In the first match, Taiwan’s top shuttler Chou Tien-chen faced a familiar opponent in world No. 3 Anders Antonsen. It was their 16th head-to-head matchup, with the Dane taking his fourth victory in a row against former world No. 2 Chou, winning 21-14, 13-21, 21-15 in 1 hour, 22 minutes. The
Marta Kostyuk’s maiden WTA 1000 title in Madrid came on Saturday thanks to her power, poise and a pair of unexpected lucky shorts. The world No. 23 beat eighth-ranked Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 7-5 in under 90 minutes to secure the most prestigious trophy of her career, her third professional singles title and second in less than a month after Rouen. Yet as the 23-year-old Ukrainian posed for photographs at the Caja Magica, it was not just the silverware that caught the eye. Held alongside her team and her two dogs, Kostyuk showed off a piece of black men’s underwear, prompting
Throwing more than US$5 billion at a divisive new tour and walking away after five seasons does not look like good business, but LIV Golf was not all bad news for Saudi Arabia. Oil-funded LIV, which poached top stars and sent golf’s establishment into a tailspin, helped push the conservative kingdom into global view — one of its key aims, experts said. The exit, confirmed on Thursday after weeks of speculation, does not signal a flight of Saudi money from sport, even after the Middle East war that sparked Iranian attacks around the Gulf, they said. “Saudi Arabia is not
Kite-surfing fabrics, car tires and shortened shoelaces helped Kenyan Sabastian Sawe and Adidas crack the two-hour marathon barrier. When Sawe on Sunday shattered one of athletics’ most elusive barriers in storming to victory at the London Marathon in 1 hour, 59 minutes, 30 seconds, it did not come from just physiology and grit, but from design choices drawn from far beyond the course. Sawe debuted Adidas’ lightest-ever racing shoe, the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3. “It starts with the mentality of the athlete, the coach, and the team behind the product, which is: What can we do better? What is the 1 percent
RSS