Olympic Tennis Update: Sock and Sands Take Mixed Doubles Gold

Here is an update from the Olympic Tennis Center with medals being awarded in mixed doubles and the bronze medal match in men’s singles complete.

It was a memorable day for American tennis in mixed doubles but only one pairing could take home the gold.

In an all American final for the gold medal on Center Court, that honor would go to Jack Sock and Bethanie-Mattek Sands after they defeated Rajeev Ram and Venus Williams in one hour and 45 minutes.

After Ram and Williams needed 55 minutes to take the first set in a tiebreak 7-6(3), Sock and Sands grabbed all the momentum winning the second set 6-1 to force a 10 point match tie break.

In 2001, the Australian Open replaced the third set that decides all other tennis matches with a match tie break and it has stuck since then. The first team to 10 points and to win by two takes the match.

Sock and Sands did one better winning the tiebreak by three {10-7} to stand on the top of the podium as Olympic gold medalists.

Sock and Sands took the first three points, lost the next six, but then won the next six to seize a 9-6 advantage before winning the match two points later.

Despite a sparse crowd because of the men’s singles bronze medal match taking place next door, both teams played their hearts out and it was fun to watch.

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For Sock, the victory means that he will leave Rio as the most decorated Tennis Olympian at these games. Sock also won bronze in men’s doubles with Steve Johnson defeating Canada’s Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil in straight sets.

Often the stories, more than the results themselves, are the best part of triumph at this event, and that is certainly the case with Sands.

After dealing with injuries that forced her to watch tennis on TV instead of playing, Sands, at the age of 31, was ready to hang up her racket and move on to the next stage of her life.

Instead, the two-time grand slam champion in doubles at the Australian and French Opens, decided to continue to play and boy was it worth the wait. She can now add Olympic gold to her impressive resume.

For Williams, the defeat was the first for her in an Olympic final as she captured her first silver medal, but she has to be pleased given that she was eliminated early in singles and doubles with her younger sister Serena.

Williams still tied Great Britain’s Kittie Mckane for the most Olympic tennis medals with five. McKane accomplished that feat in 1920 featuring one gold.

Ram wasn’t even supposed to be in this tournament, but after the Bryan Brothers withdrew, Ram was given the opportunity to play in both doubles and mixed doubles, and it paid off.

What Sands said after the match about the chills she felt when the crowd chanted USA USA USA just says it all about what Olympic competition means to these athletes.

“You can’t compare any Grand Slam to that,” she said.

Lucie Hradecka and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic took the bronze medal after defeating Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna of India.

In the men’s singles bronze medal match, its obvious that the fatigue from all the time spent on court got to Rafael Nadal who will leave Rio without a singles medal after capturing gold in 2008.

Nadal was trying to join Sock as the only tennis athletes to win multiple medals at the games of the 31st Olympiad after winning gold with friend Marc Lopez in men’s doubles.

His opponent Kei Nishikori captured Japan’s first medal in tennis with a 6-2, 6-7(1-7), 6-3 win. Nishikori had match point at five games to two in the second set but Nadal somehow came all the way back before running out of gas in the deciding set.

Earlier today, Russia’s team of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova and Daria Kasatkina of Switzerland for the gold medal in women’s doubles.

Stay with Lob and Smash for reaction to Andy Murray winning his second straight gold medal, taking down Juan Martin Del Potro. That match just concluded.

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