Posted by Richard Paglaro | @TennisNow | Saturday, August 3, 2024
Photo credit: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty
Neighbors of Perth Matthew Ebden and John Peers rode the red clay track to gold in Australia.
Down a set and 2-4, the Aussie pair Ebden and Peers staged a tense meeting in defense of the Team. Austin Krajicek from USA and Rajeev Ram 6-7(6), 7-6(1), 10-8 to win the Paris Olympics gold medal in a stunning tournament at Roland Garros.
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The Americans saved three gold medal points by falling from 5-9 to 8-9 in the crucial 10-point contest.
Then the peers bring a quick rescue.
Peers, who missed an easy point volley on the third match point, returned with a deep volley that held the first line before hitting the final shot to give Australia men’s first gold medal in 28 years.
The long-time friends and neighbors are the first Aussies to win doubles gold medals since then Mark Woodforde again Todd Woodbridge won gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
When it was over, the Aussie couple embraced and celebrated with a family group hug that lifted their children into the air.
“It’s amazing to have family and friends in the crowd. Matt’s son is here again,” Peers told NBC’s Britney Eurtock afterward. “We have to share it with our families. Matt and I were just saying: We can’t believe it. That’s what we were expecting a few months ago, but now it’s true. We’re actually gold winners.”
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A sad loss for Krajicek and Ram, who built one set, leading 4-2 and captured the gold twice.
“You play for your country in these times,” said Ram. “We were very close but we couldn’t get it. It’s nice to win silver because I feel like we won silver honestly, but it’s difficult.”
Krajicek and Ram, who knocked out 22-year-old Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal and four-time major title holder Carlos Alcaraz, en route to the gold medal match trailed 2-6 in the super tiebreaker and could not to bridge the gap.
“It’s amazing and like Raj said this is so painful: there are no words to describe it,” Krajicek told Britney Eurtock. “We left it out. We gave ourselves a chance at the end, but tennis.
“It’s a tough sport and a tough way to make a living, but it’s still an honor to be out there and win silver.”
The fourth-seeded Americans led 4-2 at the first break, but Aussies Ebden and Peers broke back in the seventh game to tie after eight games.
In the first game, Team USA won two set points 6-4. The Australian team saved them both. On their third set point, Krajicek and Ram closed the lead to one set.
Serving for a set and a break at 4-3, the United States captured gold twice. Ram had missed his first serve—he missed the first five—and Ebden made him pay. The Aussies attacked down the middle breaking the Rams to level at 4-all.
In one of the best exchanges at the net of the match, the green-and-gold pushed a volley past Krajicek to hold on for 5-4.
Ebden came out on top, hitting a volley down the middle to put Australia ahead 6-5. Ram stomped to love to force a second-set tiebreaker.
A focused Ebden scored twice in the first four points to give Australia a 4-0 lead. Ebden brought down a comeback from the Ram’s second line of action as the Aussies extended their lead to 5-1.
Peers awarded a second-set tiebreaker to force a 10-point tiebreaker to decide the gold medalist.
Wearing his non-singing cap under his baseball cap, Peers saw the light and came alive in a 10-point game. The pair hit a volley winner to put Australia up 5-2, then produced some of the most impressive shots of the day.
Running so far from the field he almost hit the line, Peers did a fantastic job to extend the point and Krajicek’s smash went wide as Australia went 7-2 up.
Ebden won the forehand vs. Ram to give four points to the green and gold medalists at 9-5 before Peers finally closed out the stirring display.
Aussies gold! 🥇
Matthew Ebden and John Peers won the doubles gold medal. Winning Australia’s first gold in an Olympic Tennis Event since Atlanta 1996#Paris2024 | #Olympics | #tennis pic.twitter.com/pyffvwrTY8
— ITF (@ITTFennis) August 3, 2024
In the end, Perth’s neighbors stood aside and basked in this golden moment.
“We live about 2 kilometers from each other back home in Perth Australia,” Ebden said. “We will talk about this story until we are 100 years old.”
