IF there is one thing to learn from the mixed doubles draw at the 2024 Olympics, it is that rankings are often nothing more than just a number.

American third seeds Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz learnt this the hard way, losing to their northern neighbours Gabriela Dabrowski and Felix Auger-Aliassime in three sets.

The Canadians had a hard fought win in the first set before the Americans came back and won the second much easier than their opponents had won the first. However, they were unable to keep that momentum in the tie breaker third set as the Canadians went on to pick up the win in just under two hours.

There was a rarely large number of double faults, with the Americans serving four of them and the Canadians serving three. However, the Canadians also served more aces, three to two.

Perhaps as a sign of how even the match was, so many of the stats were basically dead even, with no more than a percentage or two in them. This included things like first serve, break point conversions and even remarkably total points won.

The Canadians are now set to play Czech pair Katerina Siniakova and Tomas Machac, after they defeated Japan’s Ena Shibahara and Kei Nishikori in straight sets.

In other results overnight, the Australian hopes for a medal in the event were also dashed when Ellen Perez and Matthew Ebden lost to China’s Xinyu Wang and Zhizhen Zhang in a third tie breaking set, while the Dutch duo Demi Schuurs and Wesley Koolhof also progressed after defeating Italians Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori.

Mixed Doubles Results – July 31

Dabrowski/Auger-Aliassime defeated Gauff/Fritz 7-6, 3-6, [10-8]

Wang/Zhang defeated Perez/Ebden 6-7, 7-6, [10-5}

Schuurs/Koolhof defeated Errani/Vavassori 6-7, 6-3, [11-9]

Siniakova/Machac defeated Shibahara/Nishikori 7-5, 6-2