Bronze for Kirilenko and Petrova at London 2012
Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova won the bronze medal in women's doubles at London 2012 after coming back from a set down to defeat top-seeded Americans Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond 4-6 6-4 6-1.
The victory handed Russia a second medal from the Olympic Tennis Event following Maria Sharapova's silver yesterday.
The match on Wimbledon's No. 1 Court was very evenly balanced in the first two sets. The Americans broke first in the opening set, and recovered from losing their serve to break again and go a set up. The Russian No. 3 seeds didn't break their opponents until 19 games later when Huber lost her serve as the U.S. pair served to stay in the second set.
But with the match poised at one set all, Huber needed a medical timeout for a stomach problem and when she was the first player to be broken in the final set, Petrova and Kirilenko took control of the match. They broke Raymond's serve two games later, and Kirilenko went on to serve it out after 2 hours 19 minutes.
"It's a truly amazing feeling," said Petrova. "After the first set I didn't think the outcome of the match was going to be in our favour. We've done amazing, we stuck there, we broke at an important moment and then we played fantastic in the third set."
It was a disappointing day for Raymond and Huber, the world's top-ranked women's doubles partnership. For 35-year-old Huber this is the third Olympics where she has returned home without a medal; for Raymond, 38, she still has a chance to win a bronze medal when she competes in the mixed doubles bronze medal play-off with Mike Bryan. They are due to play Germans Sabine Lisicki and Christopher Kas later today.
Today marked the second meeting for these two teams, who are both regular partnerships on the women's tour. Huber and Raymond had won their first, played this year in Sydney, in straight sets, and dressed in identical red caps, white tops and blue skirts, they started more aggressively today, breaking Petrova's serve in the opening game. The Russians hit back to put the match back on level terms, but Huber and Raymond secured the lead again to take the first set 6-4 after 46 minutes.
The early stages of the match were played against the backdrop of cheering British fans sitting on nearby 'Murray Mound', where they were watching Andy Murray as he triumphed over Roger Federer in the men's final. Raymond and Huber even joined in with the No. 1 Court crowd in a round of applause when news of the home player's victory filtered through.
The second set was another tight affair between 2011 US Open champions Huber and Raymond and Kirilenko and Petrova, this year's Roland Garros runners-up. It lasted 55 minutes and the Americans had four chances to break but couldn't convert, and it wasn't until the tenth game, as Huber served trailing 4-5, that the Russians had their chance. Petrova secured the set with a backhand return on their third set point, winning 64.
But when Huber received the doctor's attention for a stomach injury with the score at one set apiece, the writing was on the wall for the Americans. She struggled to serve in the fourth game of the final set, and when one went wide of the tramlines it handed a break point to the Russians which they swiftly converted.
From there Kirilenko and Petrova rushed to victory, attacking the Raymond serve two games later to get the double break before Kirilenko served it out. As the Americans hit the ball out of court on match point, the younger Russian screamed in joy. The pair embraced before taking the Russian flag on a victory lap of the court.
It was a happy outcome for Kirilenko, who reached the semi-finals of the women's singles at London 2012 before losing to Sharapova, then missed out again to Victoria Azarenka in the bronze medal play-off.
Russia's two tennis medals from this Olympics continues their success from Beijing four years ago, when the nation's female players swept the board to claim all three medals in women's singles.