The Olympics 2020 tennis will be a battle of young upstarts as Alexander Zverev and Karen Khachanov go head-to-head for the gold medal match in the men’s division while Marketa Vondrousova takes on Belinda Bencic in the women’s group.
This year’s event has been surprising to say the least since some of the sport’s biggest names have failed to make it this far.
Novak Djokovic and Naomi Osaka were two of the favourites to win in their respective divisions. However, they were on the wrong end of two of the most shocking Olympics 2020 results.
Djokovic was defeated by Zverev in a hard-fought semis while Osaka was beaten in the third round by Vondrousova, who has yet to find her breakthrough moment since being the runner-up of the 2019 French Open.
With the two of them out, the race for the gold is wide open. And as always, SBOTOP has you covered by recapping the latest here in Tokyo.
Zverev ends Djokovic’s Golden Slam bid, sets up date with Khachanov
Alexander Zverev pulled off a massive upset last Friday when he knocked out the world No. 1 Novak Djokovic to end the Serbian’s hopes of completing the Golden Slam.
The 24-year-old German, who was touted as one of the brightest young stars in the ATP, overcame a slow start by bouncing back with consecutive set wins after losing the first set to the Serb with a 1-6 tally.
Zverev’s return game was solid in this match as he won 59-per cent (16-for-27) of points on Djokovic’s second serve with his strong groundstrokes.
In the penultimate third set, Zverev kicked things up a notch by fending off four break points to beat Djokovic for the first time since 2018, when he defeated the Serb in the NItto ATP Finals championship game.
The said result halted Novak Djokovic’s historic pursuit given that he was aiming to become the first player since Stefanie Graf during 1988 to win all four majors and an Olympic gold medal in a season.
Prior to Tokyo, the 34-year-old won the first three Grand Slams and he was the hot favourite in the Olympics 2020 odds.
With the win, Alexander Zverev is on the cusp of taking home the gold and he’ll square off against Karen Khachanov, who is fresh from a wire-to-wire victory over Pablo Carreno Busta.
The Russian stalwart has been solid on his Olympic debut and he showed why he deserves to be playing in the gold medal match.
In the semis, Karen Khachanov was strong on the serve all evening as he hit 10 aces and won 92-per cent of his first-service points en route to a 6-3, 6-3 triumph.
Pablo Carreno Busta was coming off of an upset victory over Daniil Medvedev last Thursday, but in this game it looked like he didn’t have much left on his tank.
Fortunately for the Spaniard, he just won over Novak Djokovic 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 to take home the bronze medal.
Bencic aims to make history by beating Vondrousova
Belinda Bencic could become the first woman to clinch a singles tennis gold medal for Switzerland after winning over Elena Rybakina 7-6(2), 4-6, 6-3 last Thursday.
Standing in her way will be Marketa Vondrousova, who dominated Elina Svitolina in the semis with a 6-3, 6-1 tally.
It was a nervy match all throughout as Belinda Bencic started off the wrong foot when she struggled with her serve, which led to a 5-2 run by Elena Rybakina in the opening set. But the Swiss was determined to reclaim the edge and she eventually came through in the first set.
In the second set, however, it was Rybakina’s turn to rally from behind to push the affair to a deciding third set.
Bencic didn’t waver from her focus and she won the final set, 6-3, and tears of joy started to stream down from her face since she knew that she is assured of a silver or a gold.
On the other hand, it was a one-sided affair for Marketa Vondrousova as she is now also on the verge of securing the gold.
The crafty Czech unleashed her full arsenal, cementing her place at the podium by outplaying her Ukranian counterpart in Elina Svitolina.
The gold medal fixture between Bencic and Vondrousova is going to be a rematch of their meeting earlier this year during the Miami Open, to which the latter won 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Meanwhile, Elina Svitolina just captured the first-ever tennis medal for Ukraine as she defeated Elena Rybakina for the bronze, 1-6, 7-6, 6-4.
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