Rio de Janeiro: Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina shattered Martina Hingis’s hopes of a golden Olympic return after a 20-year absence with victory in the women’s doubles final yesterday.
The seventh seeds won 6-4, 6-4 against Hingis and Swiss partner Timea Bacsinszky, seeded five. Hingis last played the Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta.
For the Russian duo, the gold medal comes on top of their two Grand Slam titles together at the 2013 French Open and 2014 US Open.
“We were in good shape because we won the tournament right before. We won! Oh my God,” said Vesnina, who captured the Montreal doubles title with lifelong friend Makarova on the eve of Rio.
However, that victory almost cost them dear as a series of flight delays and cancellations meant it took the pair the best part of four days to get to Brazil, arriving two days before the event started.
The result ended a difficult Olympics for 35-year-old Hingis.
First, Roger Federer, her scheduled partner in the mixed doubles, withdrew with injury and a day later Belinda Bencic, her doubles teammate, also pulled out.
In a last-minute solution, where Vitorija Golubic dropped out of the team, Hingis was paired with Bacsinszky.
Hingis also split with regular tour doubles partner, India’s Sania Mirza despite the duo being the top ranked players in the world.
In the mixed doubles final, Venus Williams missed out on her chance to become the first tennis player to win five Olympic gold medals when she and partner Rajeev Ram were defeated yesterday.
They lost 6-7 (3/7), 6-1, 10-7 to US compatriots Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock.
Venus won singles gold at Sydney in 2000 and doubles titles with sister Serena in 2000, 2008 and 2012. She and 32-year-old Ram had never played together before Rio.
Ram was a late call-up to the US squad after 2012 men’s doubles champions Bob and Mike Bryan pulled out for health reasons.
Earlier yesterday, Lucie Hradecka and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic needed just 71 minutes to claim bronze, defeating India’s Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna 6-1, 7-5.
Mirza and Bopanna had lost in the semi-finals Saturday to Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram of the United States.
Also yesterday, Kei Nishikori gave Japan its first Olympic tennis medal in 86 years, overcoming a mid-match lull to beat 2008 champion Rafael Nadal for the bronze in men’s singles.
Nishikori won the third-place match 6-2, 6-7 (1), 6-3 on Sunday after blowing a 5-2 lead in the second set.
In 1920, Japan won its only previous Olympic tennis medals, a pair of silvers.
Nadal does leave Brazil with a gold medal from men’s doubles for Spain.
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