A dark-horse appeared in Rio
View(s):Puig and Murray snatch gold
When the Rio Tennis event reached quarter-final stage, the run for medals did not miss the elite absenteeism or the early seeded victims of the draw as the final three rounds produced outstanding quality of Tennis.
In the women’s side Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig gave her country its first Olympic Gold medal ever. Unseeded Puig stood up to the challenge from the world’s number two, Germany’s Angelique Kerber and pulled out a stunning win. In men’s, Great Britain’s Andy Murray came through to the finals playing resilient Tennis and then in the final, withstood an onslaught of his life time in the hands of Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro to come through to be the last man standing in Rio.
Monica Puig- the dark horse
Puerto Rico is an island in the northern Caribbean. Their history began with the arrival of Europeans in the fifteenth century followed by a ‘warring’ history. Today it stands as an unincorporated dependent territory of USA – a unique arrangement. The inhabitants have the privilege of being either a US or Puerto Rican citizen. Two of the famous tennis players from Puerto Rico who played under the US flag are Charles Pasarell in the sixties and Gigi Fernandez in the eighties and nineties. Gold medalist Monica Puig trains in Florida and has been knocking on the door since last year appearing in respectable rounds of majors. This is her first major title which is sending shock waves in the Tennis scene.
The humid conditions and the tough semi-final match made Kerber come into the final reasonably drained of energy. In the final’s she conceded the 3rd set to Puig relatively cheap at 6/1. They played 186 points for two hours and nine minutes. Puig on her way to the finals beat Russia’s Pavlyuchenkova, French Open winner Spain’s Garbine Muguruza and Czech Republic’s former Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova. Puig’s performance is very impressive. In the bronze medal match for women Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova beat USA’s Madison keys.
Men’s Tennis marathon
The event ‘marathon’, that is to run 40 kilometers goes back in time to 490 BC to the origin of Olympics. Even today the Marathon is the final event of the Olympics symbolizing the link to ancient Greece. The men’s Tennis match for the gold medal in Rio turned out to be an unforgettable Tennis-marathon. The most difficult thing to do in Tennis is to play simple shots effectively back. It will engage the opponent’s activity fully and reduces their advances. This is exactly what Murray and Del Potro did to each other in the men’s final. They played a staggering 296 points and the ‘marathon’ match lasted four hours and nine minutes.
Monica Puig
In the last Olympics too Del Potro was in the longest match against Roger Federer and the final set had 48 games. In the Rio final, there was no such big score but the number of rallies and length of each rally was extraordinarily long and the advantage swung from one player to another like a pendulum. There was nothing both these players could not do. Their tactics and effective shot selection ‘handcuffed’ each other to an extent that they had little choice when it came to change of tactics. Each point bought a roar of applause from the spectators.
Murray and Del Potro have the capability to place their services at speeds over 130 mph. They also have the ability to return such services without much difficulty. This made the match to be fought out with their all-court stroke-making ability. There were no shortages in these departments in either of them. These two equally matched exponents had little choice but to fight it out in a grueling long battle. They have done their home work well and were well prepared to face each other. The long match made the tall Del Potro tired towards the end. He took more millage on court to reach the finals than Murray.
In the midst of mega achievements of Usain Bolt’s 3rd gold in the 100 meters, South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk’s new world record timing in 400 meters, that of 43 year old Kristin Armstrong who is a mother, nurse and three times gold medalist in the cycling discipline of road racing, Murray’s consecutive Gold medal in Olympics is little overshadowed. This is also Del Potro’s second Olympic medal having got the Bronze in London 2012. Exhausted Nadal lost to Nishikori in the Bronze medal match giving yet another medal to Japan.
Mascot Vinicus
Early rounds of the draw and the doubles lost some luster with the absence of good players. The semi-finalists of the women and men made the Olympics Tennis stronger and exciting. The Olympic flame took ninety days to reach Rio. The friendly mascot Vinicus appeared in all the thirty three Olympic venues, Rio conducted 306 events in 16 days, they housed ten thousand and five hundred athletes and seven and half a million tickets were printed. Rio Olympics and the city Rio de Janeiro will leave vivid memories in all of us.
George Paldano, Former int. player; Accredited Coach of Germany; National, Davis-Cup, Federation Cup coach–. georgepaldano@yahoao.com