Women's Tennis Singles/Gold and Bronze Matches
DAVENPORT Takes Gold, NOVOTNA Wins Bronze
Lindsay DAVENPORT of the United States brought home the USA's second-consecutive Olympic women's singles gold medal Friday with a 7-6 (6), 6-2 victory over Spain's Arantxa SANCHEZ VICARIO. The 1992 Olympic gold medalist in women's singles was Jennifer CAPRIATI.
The point of the match came on SANCHEZ VICARIO's serve in first set tiebreak, when a lucky net cord gave DAVENPORT a one-set advantage. She would break SANCHEZ VICARIO three times in the final set, including a crucial break at 5-2 that allowed her to serve out the match.
The seventh-seeded DAVENPORT lost only one set throughout the championship, defeating four of the tournament's top 10 seeds, including the No. 3 SANCHEZ VICARIO, en route to the final. In five previous meetings she had never defeated the Spaniard, with two of those losses coming on hardcourts.
Earlier in the day, sixth-seeded Jana NOVOTNA (CZE) took home her second Olympic medal, a bronze, defeating No. 7-seed Mary Joe FERNANDEZ of the United States, 7-6 (6), 6-4. NOVOTNA also will bring home at least a silver medal Saturday, when she and partner Helena SUKOVA meet FERNANDEZ and Gigi FERNANDEZ in the women's doubles final.
"This means everything to me," DAVENPORT said. "No matter what happens in my life, I'll always be a gold medalist."
WOODBRIDGE and WOODFORDE Strike First-Ever Tennis Gold for Australia
One hundred years after Australia won its first and only men's Olympic tennis medal, top-seeded Mark WOODFORDE and Todd WOODBRIDGE took home the nation's first-ever tennis gold, winning the Olympic men's doubles championship Friday with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Great Britain's Tim HENMAN and Neil BROAD. Ironically, Australia's last men's Olympic tennis medal came in 1896, when Edwin FLACK paired with Great Britain's George ROBERTSON to win the doubles bronze.
The British pair did not earn a single break point opportunity against the top-rated Aussies, who have not lost a match since the French Open semifinals in June. Despite that fact, the match stayed even through most of the opening set, as both teams held serve until 3-all in the first. WOODBRIDGE and WOODFORDE reached their first break point of the day at 0-40 on BROAD's serve, only to have the Brits bring them back to deuce with three straight winners. After a double fault and an ace, the Aussies broke to take the first lead of the match, eventually rolling to their first-ever Olympic medal.
"This feels pretty close to winning a Wimbledon title," Todd WOODBRIDGE said of bringing home Australia's first tennis gold medal. "I've never been involved in winning a Davis Cup Tournament, and to win a gold for your country when the whole nation is behind you, that's fantastic."
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