Tennis golden girl Ash Barty has suffered Olympic heartbreak, losing a cliffhanger of a mixed doubles semi-final with Davis Cup stalwart John Peers.
Barty and Peers must settle for a bronze-medal playoff after falling 5-7 6-4 13-11 to Andrey Rublev and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova after letting a match point slip against the Russians in a tension-filled deciding super tiebreak.
Peers and the newly-crowned Wimbledon champion had been a point away from the chance to join doubles greats legends Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge as Australian tennis’ only Games gold medallists.
Alas, Barty and Peers must instead return on Saturday to fight for a bronze after Rublev, the men’s world No.7, and Pavlyuchenkova, the women’s 2021 French Open finalist, held their nerve to clinch a gallant comeback win on their third match point.
“It’s a tough one to swallow,” Barty said.
After a shock first-round exit as top seed in the singles, then a tight third-round loss in women’s doubles with Storm Sanders, Barty seemed poised to make the mixed final after taking the opening set on Friday night.
But, after overcoming the concession of the second set to establish a 6-4 advantage in the super tiebreak, Barty and Peers were unable to close out the thriller.
They eventually succumbed when Rublev rifled an unplayable return of serve from Peers into Barty’s body at the net.
“Those tiebreaks at times, they go either way and we just didn’t quite have the run of the grain,” Barty said.
“We put ourselves in a position to win the match, we just weren’t able to close it out.
“It was a good level, no doubt disappointing, but we get to fight for a medal tomorrow.”
Bidding to claim Australia’s first Olympic tennis medal since Alicia Molik took bronze in the women’s singles in Athens 17 years ago, Barty and Peers will men’s world No.1 Novak Djokovic and his Serbian partner Nina Stojanovic.
“This one hurts but we still have an opportunity to play another match and try to win a medal for Australia,” Barty said.
“We pick ourselves up pretty quickly, move on and know that we will give it our all and keep fighting right until the end.
“It’s been quite a while since we’ve had an Australian medallist here (in tennis) at the Olympics so we’re looking forward to that challenge.”
Djokovic, too, must pick himself up after German Alexander Zverev ended his bid for a golden slam with a stunning singles win, then he and Stojanovic lost 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 to Russians Elena Vesnina and Aslan Karatsev in the mixed later on Friday night.
“Tough day man, really tough day,” Djokovic said.
“I feel so terrible right now. Can’t be positive right now.”
AAP
