2016 Rio Olympics: Early Results Shock Men’s and Women’s Draws
Round One action from the Olympic Tennis Centre in Rio De Janeiro has produced shocking results at the top.
Lob and Smash will attempt to make sense of what happened in Round One tennis singles and doubles action, but if you’re still confused by the end of this article, I don’t blame you.
For the last two years, the men’s game has been dominated by one man: Novak Djokovic. Roger Federer, Andy Murray, and Rafael Nadal are formidable challengers that can get the best of Djokovic, but in 2015 the Serbian entered a tier of his own: nothing but he was going to stop him.
After getting his season back on track with a win at the Rogers Cup, Djokovic was the clear cut favorite to win the gold medal after failing to win a medal in London.
Instead, the top half of the draw in round two will not include the number one seed after Juan Martin Del Porto of Argentina shockingly ended the world number one’s bid in two tiebreaks, winning 7-6(4), 7-6(2) in straight sets.
This match wasn’t supposed to be a blowout by any means. Most expected it to be close especially after Del Porto beat Djokovic for bronze in London, but Djokovic was expected to come out on top, and instead it was the Argentine.
Djokovic struggled to keep up with Del Porto all night long, and when the two embraced afterwards Djokovic told Del Porto that he deserved to win before leaving the court in tears as he acknowledged the stunned crowd.
In the first set, Djokovic struggled with his first serve compared to Del Porto winning just 65 percent of first serve points compared to 83 percent for Del Porto. The most surprising stat: the world’s best returner won just 24 percent of his receiving point chances. That is how good Del Porto’s serve and forehand were. Djokovic had ten less winners, and just as many unforced errors.
Djokovic got better with his first serve, but he made 17 unforced errors compared with nine for Del Porto, and despite failing to convert three break point opportunities, Del Porto won all 16 of his second serve points.
Del Porto came back from injury earlier this year, and now he earned quite possibly, the biggest win of his career outside of beating Federer in the final of the 2009 U.S. Open.
This open’s the door for Andy Murray to defend his gold medal who got through to the second round against Victor Trocki yesterday. Rafael Nadal is also through along with Kei Nishikori, Gael Monfils, and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga who all won on Saturday. Monfils and Del Porto also won today.
Tsonga’s run came to an end today in the second round against Gilles Mueller, while Del Porto, Marin Cilic, and Roberto Bautista Agut are among those through to the third round.
More of the same took place in both men’s and ladies doubles. On the men’s side, Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France were defeated by Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah of Colombia in straight sets.
On the women’s side, Serena and Venus Williams lost a doubles match at the Olympics for the first time, ending Venus Williams hopes at another gold medal after she lost her first round singles match. Serena still has a chance to win another singles gold medal after moving through to the second round.
Djokovic still has a chance to win gold in doubles with his partner Nenad Zimonjic. They will play later today on Centre Court. Two American teams won today: Steve Johnson and Jack Sock, along with Brian Baker and Rajeev Ram.
To see who is into the third round after the first three days of action, check out the respective draws and live scores. Watch coverage on Bravo, and stream it live on the NBC Sports app.
Stay with Lob and Smash for coverage of the Olympic Games!