Pavlyuchenkova-Rublev, Vesnina-Karatsev in all-ROC Olympic mixed final

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Andrey Rublev will face ROC compatriots Elena Vesnina and Aslan Karatsev in the Olympic mixed doubles gold medal match after completing a hat-trick of ROC semi-final wins at Ariake Tennis Park.

The two ROC teams came through tight semi-finals on Friday, Pavlyuchenkova and Rublev downing Australia’s Ashleigh Barty and John Peers in a match tie-break before Vesnina and Karatsev came out on top of two tight sets against Serbia’s Nina Stojanovic and Novak Djokovic 7-6(4) 7-5.

Hot on the heels of Karen Khachanov’s surge to the men’s singles gold medal match, the mixed doubles success ensures ROC of three tennis medals at Tokyo 2020, a tally that could yet rise to four should Vesnina and Veronika Kudermetova beat Brazilians Laura Pigossi and Luisa Stefani in Saturday’s women’s doubles bronze medal match.

Vesnina and Karatsev had to wait for Djokovic to have time to recover from his singles semi-final defeat by Germany’s Alexander Zverev before taking to Court 1, where both sides traded early breaks in a fast-paced, entertaining clash. The Serbian duo saw a set point slip by at 5-4, a costly chance passed as the ROC pair ran away with the tiebreak.

The pattern seemed set to repeat itself in the second set when Stojanovic dropped serve to level the scores at 4-4 after Karatsev had given up the opening game, but needing to hold to reach a second tiebreak, Stojanovic was broken again, sealing victory and setting up the all-ROC final.

“I feel sorry for Novak – it’s a tough day for him,” said Vesnina, who shared a moment with the singles world No. 1 at the net. “But this is sport, this is tennis – the level is really high, the nerves are really high.

“We’re really happy that we won this match because we wanted to be in the final. We were focusing on every single point, we didn’t want to give anything. We knew that we were playing against such a champion like Novak – for me, it was such an honour to play against him, a dream come true, and I admire him. But it’s just great that we won today, we played such a solid match and I’m happy that we won it.”

Earlier in the day, Pavlyuchenkova and Rublev survived a match point in the decisive match tiebreak to beat Barty and Peers 4-6 6-4 [13-11] in a thriller. An entertaining contest came right down to the wire on Court 1, with Barty and Peers pegged back after edging the opening set of the match.

The ROC duo recovered from 4-6 down in the match tiebreak to see a match point come and go at 9-8, blowing a second on their own serve at 10-9 before the Aussies followed suit at 11-10 – the last chance for the Green and Gold pair as Pavlyuchenkova and Rublev sealed victory in one hour, 43 minutes.

Barty and Peers will face Stojanovic and Djokovic in the bronze medal match on Saturday – a rare meeting of the WTA and ATP singles world No. 1s respectively in a competitive match - before Vesnina returns on her birthday in search of a second Olympic gold medal.

“It’s already a great present to play in the final – I’m not going to put any pressure on myself anyway,” she said. “I’m just going to enjoy it.”

For Karatsev, ROC’s success at Tokyo 2020 is testament not only to the quality of their players but the pre-tournament preparations arranged by the national federation.

“We came here, and we have two finals already – three with Karen in the other final,” said the Olympic debutant. “It’s really good for the country and special to be playing well at the Olympic Games. Now we have to prepare ourselves and be ready.”

Between now and Sunday, will the atmosphere be any frostier around the ROC dorms in the Olympic Village? Not a bit of it, Vesnina insists.

“We’re a team – we’ll congratulate them, it’s amazing,” she said. “On the court we will play against each other and try to win, but off the court nothing is going to change. Maybe we will have a few jokes about the match, but that’s it.”