Tokyo 2020 Olympics - memorable moments
With the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games officially drawing to a close on Sunday 8 August, ITFTennis.com looks back on some of the standout performers, matches and moments from the Olympic Tennis Event at Ariake Tennis Park.
Belinda Bencic doubles down at Ariake
You might not have picked Belinda Bencic to emerge from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as the best-performing tennis player prior to the event, but almost as soon as the Games began she emerged as a worthy front-runner for success.
Buoyed by every breath of “Olympic air”, as she so beautifully put it, Bencic went from strength to strength in Tokyo, and once she negotiated Roland Garros champion Barbora Krejcikova in the third round, any pressure to achieve seemed to evaporate entirely. “I did a great result and really I can just enjoy it now,” she said then, and duly did – promptly seeing off Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Elena Rybakina and Marketa Vondrousova to become her nation’s first female Olympic champion in tennis. She won the Olympic singles gold coveted by the likes of Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka and Martina Hingis, and emulated Marc Rosset’s achievement of 1992.
Perhaps best of all, Bencic shared memories to last a lifetime with teammate Viktoria Golubic – with whom she took home women’s doubles silver. Even Czech powerhouse duo Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, worthy gold medal winners, couldn’t wipe the smiles from their faces at the end of a dream week in Japan.
Zverev delivers Djok shock
There’s no denying the seismic impact of seeing Novak Djokovic’s quest for Olympic gold ending in the semi-finals for a third time. As winner of the Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon titles already in 2021, this felt like the world No. 1’s moment, the chance to match Steffi Graf’s unrivalled Golden Slam season of 1988. That the opportunity should slip from his grasp at the hands of her compatriot, Germany’s Alexander Zverev, only added to the drama.
Djokovic had led the No. 4 seed by a set and a break, but Zverev stormed back in breathtaking fashion, winning eight games in a row to turn the match on its head and book his berth in the gold medal match, where he defeated Karen Khachanov to be crowned Olympic champion.
Osaka carries the flame
Before a ball had been hit at Ariake Tennis Park, Japan’s Naomi Osaka had already made Olympic tennis history. The reigning US and Australian Open champion became the first tennis player to light the Olympic cauldron during the Opening Ceremony to signal the start of the Games, later describing it as “undoubtedly the greatest athletic achievement and honour I will ever have in my life.”
Venus and Daniell revel in historic bronze
You’d struggle to find two people more delighted to be taking part in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics than Marcus Daniell and Michael Venus, and it’s safe to say winning a medal for New Zealand – the nation’s first in tennis - thoroughly tipped their emotions over the edge.
Daniell shed a tear when the pair stunned second seeds Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal in the quarter-finals and a good few more when they clinched a medal with victory over Tennys Sandgren and Austin Krajicek in the bronze medal play-off, but those emotions were shared around the room in their highly-charged press conference afterwards.
They talked passionately about the pride of winning for their nation, inspiring the younger generation back home, Daniell’s charity organisation and the sacrifices they’ve made along the way. Those have been particularly significant for Venus, who was in the midst of a near-four month stint away from his wife and two daughters – including a new-born that he’d been able to see for just a week of her life to date. Not a dry eye in the house.
Andy's selfless act
Sir Andy Murray has already broken enough barriers at the Games (the London 2012 and Rio 2016 gold medallist is the only player to defend an Olympic title after all). But whatever the extent of his physical problems in Tokyo, jettisoning his own hopes of a three-peat to honour a pledge to doubles team-mate Joe Salisbury is, well… Olympic spirit personified.
“I said to Joe that if he picked me to play doubles with him then I’d prioritise doubles over the singles if I had any physical issues,” Murray said. True to his word, when a right quad muscle strain flared up on the eve of the event, he dropped out of his singles first round match to focus on the doubles.
Sadly, there was no dream ending – the pair fell to eventual silver-medallists Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig in the quarter-finals.
Purcell seizes golden opportunity
Australia's Max Purcell was the beneficiary of Murray’s singles withdrawal, earning a main draw berth as a result – but that’s only half the story.
The world No. 190 only earned his place in the Games after Alex De Minaur’s Covid-19-enforced withdrawal gave him a doubles spot, before a very late singles call-up singles presented itself. You might consider Purcell luckier than Pavlyuchenkova and Rublev in a match tie-break, but his triumph in the opening round of the singles was anything but a fluke.
The 23-year-old had about four hours’ notice before playing Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime in the first round, not that he let that bother him. Defying the 175 ranking spots between them, he beat the Canadian in straight sets.
“I felt like I could win, I believed I could win… and I won,” he said, simply. Perhaps you do make your own luck...
Heart-break for Carla and Garbine
As well as the highs of victory in Tokyo, there were some devastating losses – and perhaps none more gut-wrenching than doubles defeat for Spain’s Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro.
The 32-year-old’s return to tennis since overcoming cancer has been one of the feel-good stories of the season, but neither she nor a crestfallen Muguruza could hide their heart-break after seeing a match point come and go against eventual silver-medallists Belinda Bencic and Viktorija Golubic in the second round.
The agony of defeat was laid bare in an emotional interview with Spanish reporters shortly after the contest, which marked the end of Suarez Navarro’s Olympic career.
Games, set, match for Bertens and Lu
Suarez Navarro will bid her final farewell to tennis later this year, but the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games marked the end of the road for two players.
Netherlands’ Kiki Bertens, the former world No. 4 who reached the semi-finals of both Roland Garros and the Billie Jean King Cup in 2016, announced on the eve of the Olympics that it would be her last tournament, while Yen-hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei – the only player to ever beat two-time Olympic champion Andy Murray in singles at the Games in 2008 – was honoured as his nation’s flagbearer at the Opening Ceremony.
Brazil's historic Cinderella run
For all the glory and golds in Tokyo, one of the standout performances of the Olympics saw Brazil strike bronze – and in jaw-dropping fashion. Laura Pigossi and Luisa Stefani were two of the final entrants to the Olympic Tennis Event, only learning about their inclusion on the eve of Tokyo 2020, and despite having played only a handful of matches together prior to the Games surged all the way to the semi-finals.
Swiss duo Bencic and Golubic ended their giant-killing streak, but the fairytale didn't end there. In the bronze medal match they saved four match points against ROC’s Veronika Kudermetova and Elena Vesnina to hit back from 9-5 down in the match tiebreak.
With that, Brazil had their first Olympic tennis medal, while Pigossi becomes the lowest-ranked tennis player in history to reach an Olympic podium.
They ROC’d it
The Russian Olympic Committee delivered the biggest medal haul of any team at the tennis event, claiming a gold and two silvers in beautifully contrasting styles.
Karen Khachanov was a picture of mental toughness en route to singles silver, his steely focus and astute shot selection guiding him neatly through to the final before he bounced off a German wall in Alexander Zverev. In the mixed doubles, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Andrey Rublev were an utterly joyful watch, living each other’s every volley, winner and miscued overhead in comical fashion and ultimately navigating a FOURTH consecutive match tie-break to beat Aslan Karatsev and Elena Vesnina to gold in their all-ROC final.
“He says we’re lucky – it kind of makes me angry,” joked Pavlyuchenkova afterwards, and she put the world No. 7 in his place on the podium, playfully draping Rublev’s gold medal around her own neck alongside her own and leaving the rest of us under no illusions: this is a partnership we need to see again.