Aussies hold nerve to claim historic gold
AUSTRALIA has its first tennis gold medal in almost 30 years after Matthew Ebden and John Peers stunned American duo Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram to win the men’s doubles at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
In a hard fought, over two hour long match, the Australian boys fought off a late American surge in the third set tie breaker to ultimately prevail 6-7, 7-6, [10-8]. It was a match with many ebbs and flows, but ultimately the Aussie boys held their nerve to take the win.
The Aussies fought back from 2-4 down in the second set to face a tiebreaker, and they held a 9-5 lead in the third set tiebreaker but almost let it slide, but ultimately held firm to take the win.
Speaking post-match, Ebden said that “it’s trippy. It’s more than a dream. I didn’t even dream of winning a gold medal growing up or whatever. “
“The last few years, I had great success on the doubles court. It gave a lot of belief and confidence coming in here.”
Speaking about the reaction of his young daughters in the crowd, Peers said they would be talking about it “until we’re 100”.
Most of the match stats showed how tight it was, but ultimately the Aussie pair had a better first serve and won more points off their first serve, which helped them prevail for the gold.
This is Australia’s second ever gold medal in tennis, and first since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta where Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde beat British duo Neil Broad and Tim Henman for the men’s doubles gold.
“It’s an absolute honour. Anytime we get mentioned along with same breath as those two, they paved the way for us,” Peers said.
Not all doom and gloom for Team USA
The result went better for the other American pair Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul, who defeated Czech duo Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek to claim the bronze medal.
In a pretty quick one-hour and 10-minute job, the American combination ultimately prevailed in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 to ensure the United States claimed both the silver and bronze.
The Americans really got the Czech pair on the forcing 29 errors compated to only 17 of their own. The Czechs also recorded slightly more unforced errors than the Americans did.
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