Men’s Doubles Gold Medal Match 

In the second tennis gold medal match, it was the Australian team of John Peers and Matthew Ebden taking home the gold. They beat the American team of Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek 6-7 (6) 7-6 (1) 10-8. They were clearly the two best teams in the tournament and it was only right they were the teams to take home gold and silver. Neither team had dropped a set all Olympics so it was only right to go 3 sets in the final. High level of tennis all around, and it came down to Peers and Ebden playing a perfect 30 minutes of tennis and rode that across the finish line. 

This is going to hurt for a long time for Ram and Krajicek. Probably forever. They were up a set and 4-2 looking like they were going to close it out. Tennis is a crazy sport, especially with a 10 point tiebreak for the third set, because even at 7-6 4-2 and winning the first 75 minutes of tennis, you are still 30 min away from losing. As expected, it got tough to cross the finish line for a team that had never won a gold medal before. At 4-3 Raj missed all 5 first serves that game to get broken, and you could see the wheels starting to turn. The Aussies were gaining momentum. But it wasn’t until the next game that they fully got it. 4-4 40-30 for the Aussies, Krajieck hits a beautiful volley right at Ebden’s feet and he hits this reach down stab drop volley in the alley, as good as possible. The two of them went crazy, the crowd went crazy, they had arrived. Although it went to a tiebreaker it really was all Ebden/Peers after that moment and they took it 7-1 in the tiebreak.

 Why in the world is the 3rd set for a gold medal a 10 point tiebreak. Those players work their ass off and play doubles year round and they’re going to decide that by chance? So without much time to shake off what happened, USA took a restroom break trying to halt the momentum of the Aussies. And it worked because it was them who strike first. Peers double faulted the mini away. 2-1 USA. But Raj DF’s right back, 2-2, and the Aussies take the next point also. 2-3 AUS. After that they went to fantasy land for the next few points, and played about as good as possible, having 2-3 crazy gets in a point, all over the court, winning the next 5 points.

That is when it looked like it would take a Murray type of comeback to get this job done. But as Raj/Kraj got tight trying to win it all, so did the 36 year old Aussies. Down 9-5 Krajicek ripped an inside in forehand winner to get some momentum going and you could feel the energy start to change. 9-7 sick Peers return, Ebden bricks the volley though. Now everybody is thinking if Raj/Kraj can just steal this point surely they will win this thing. And Raj cranks a backhand to the shakier player, Peers, who hits a forehand volley that seems to be floating. If it could just go a few inches farther. But it doesn’t and drops right near the line, making it super tough for Krajicek to do anything with it. Gold Medal Aussies.

For the Aussies it is a hell of an achievement, and for the American’s it is one they’ll want back forever. What do you do when you are that close to gold but still get silver. Well Rajeev Ram said it about as good as you can, they “won silver”. They didn’t lose gold, they won silver. That’s something every person on Earth would love to have, and to be extremely proud of. A match to remember for a while, and in the end it is Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek adding a silver medal to the USA column, and Matthew Ebden and John Peers adding a gold medal to AUS. 

Men’s Doubles Bronze Medal Match 

In the bronze medal match it was the other American team of Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz taking home the medal over Czech team, Thomas Machac and Adam Pavlesek. Machac won gold in mixed doubles yesterday with Katerina Siniakova, and the US team looked more determined to make sure they flew home with a medal. I would also not be surprised if Machac maybe didn’t sleep the best after winning his Gold Medal last night because it took the Czechia team half a set to get going. The Americans came out with a lot of energy, pummeling returns, got an early lead, and never looked back. Fritz volleyed much better in this match than he did vs Ebden/Peers so once they plugged that up it was hard to find anywhere to gain any ground. As Fritz would say he wanted to make sure they had a nice flight home. 4 American men going back to the states with silver medals.

Gold: Ebden/Peers (AUS)

Silver: Ram/Salisbury (USA)

Bronze: Fritz/Paul (USA)