Tsonga-Llodra through to doubles gold medal match
Not content to finish on the winning end of a marathon score-line just the once at these Olympic Games, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has done it again, this time partnering Michael Llodra to down Spaniards David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 4-6, 18-16 in the men’s doubles semi-finals.
The victory, after 3hr 29min, guarantees the Frenchman will finish the Games with a medal for all his gruelling hours on court.
The second seeds will face heavy favourites and top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan for the gold medal after the Americans ended hopes of an all-French final with a straight forward 6-4, 6-4 ledger against Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet earlier in the day.
The Bryans – bidding to win their first Olympic gold medal – won 91 per cent of their first-serve points and never faced a break point throughout.
Benneteau and Gasquet will be left to battle for bronze with the Spaniards, who came agonisingly close to upsetting Tsonga and Llodra.
After the French second seeds had broken to serve for the match at 13-12 in their epic duel, Ferrer and Lopez levelled before dropping serve again at 16-16. The French pair made no mistake of it this time round, clinching a place in Saturday’s gold-medal play-off, 18-16.
In the women’s doubles, top-seeded American pair Lisa Raymond and Liezel Huber were bidding for their first Olympic medal of any colour. Two of the game’s most decorated doubles players – Raymond with 13 Grand Slam titles to her name, Huber with 10 – will be left to fight for bronze after falling to fourth-seeded Czech pair Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka 6-1, 7-6(2) in 1hr 38mins.
In their only previous encounter, Huber and Ryamond won easily at Eastbourne in 2011.
While both pairings are regular partnerships on the WTA Tour, the fourth seeds were considerable underdogs. Hradecka is ranked eighth in doubles, Hlavackova 12th, while Huber and Raymond are joint-No.1s.
Hlavackcova and Hradecka – former French Open champions – raced to a 6-1, 5-3 lead, serving for a place in the final at 5-4. Drawing on all their experience though, the Americans broke for 5-5, before holding a set point at 5-6. The Czech pair went on to force a second-set tiebreak, which they duly wrapped up 7-2, when Hlavackova clocked a winner down the line.
The Czechs will await the winner of Saturday’s second women’s doubles semi-final between the Williams sisters and Russians Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova after their match was held over due to a backlog in Friday’s schedule.
The London 2012 Olympic tennis is taking place at Wimbledon. Visit the ITF Olympics site for full scores, draws and the London 2012 site for video content, venue and schedule information.
