2016 OLYMPIC TENNIS NOTES & QUOTES FROM RIO – USTA – BETHANIE MATTEK-SANDS & JACK SOCK WIN MIXED DOUBLES GOLD MEDAL

Written by: Staff on 14th August 2016

2016 OLYMPIC TENNIS NOTES & QUOTES FROM RIO - USTA - BETHANIE MATTEK-SANDS & JACK SOCK WIN MIXED DOUBLES GOLD MEDAL

epa05482156 General view over the Center Court during the during the women's Singles Gold medal match of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Tennis events between Monica Puig of Puerto Rico (top) and Angelique Kerber of Germany (bottom) at the Olympic Tennis Centre in the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 13 August 2016. EPA/JEON HEON-KYON |

2016 Olympic Games

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Olympic Tennis Center, Rio Olympic Park

Tennis Competition Dates: August 6-14

RESULTS (SUNDAY, AUGUST 14, 2016)

MIXED DOUBLES GOLD MEDAL MATCH:

Bethanie Mattek-Sands/Jack Sock (USA) def. Venus Williams/Rajeev Ram (USA) 6-7(3), 6-1, [10-7]

RESULTS (FROM SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 2016)

WOMEN’S SINGLES BRONZE MEDAL MATCH:

Petra Kvitova (CZE) def. Madison Keys (USA) 7-5, 2-6, 6-2

FAST FACTS

· Today’s mixed doubles final was the first All-American tennis final of any kind in the Olympics since 1924.

· By winning the silver medal in mixed doubles, Venus Williams becomes only the second tennis player ever to win five Olympic medals of any kind. Great Britain’s Kathleen McKane also won five medals between 1920-1924.

· The United States has now won 24 Olympic tennis medals, the most of any nation since tennis was re-instated as an Olympic sport in 1988. The U.S. leaves Rio with the gold medal in mixed doubles (Jack Sock and Bethanie Mattek-Sands), the silver medal in mixed doubles (Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram), and a bronze medal in men’s doubles (Jack Sock and Steve Johnson).

QUOTES FROM SATURDAY, AUGUST 13

MADISON KEYS

What are you going to take away from the six matches here?

I think I matured a lot in a lot of ways and I think I fought as hard as I could and I left it all out on the court so I’m proud of myself for that.

Madison Keys of USA returns a ball to Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic during the women’s Singles Bronze Medal match of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Tennis events at the Olympic Tennis Centre in the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 13 August 2016. EPA/JEON HEON-KYUN

How have you matured the most over this tournament?

There have been times in previous years in tough situations that I could have gone away and made a lot of mistakes. I’ve fought and I dug deep and I figured matches out.

What are things you learned from playing players like Kerber and Kvitova?

When I needed points most they played their best tennis. You just have to expect that. They are both great players. They’ve both won Grand Slams and they’ve been in those positions.

Do you feel you are getting close to that experience after a great week and a half like this?

Yeah I think the experience is part of the maturity of growing up and being in tight situations. I think the match against Mladenovic was more of an experience match so there are lots of good things to take away even though it really sucks.

You’ve got to take positives away from what you’ve experienced here for the rest of the year…

Right now it’s not super easy to see those positives but I’m defiantly going to take what I learned and use it and everything that happened here and move on.

How tight was today’s match?

It’s one of those matches where a point here and there made the difference and unfortunately I did not win those today.

Can you talk about this whole experience?

This was an amazing experience. No matter how badly this hurts today there are so many positives to take away from it so I would never trade that in for anything. There was a lot of matches that I could have potentially lost but I was able to fight but also it was a very unique experience being part of a team, the Olympic village. It was a really fun experience so I’m just going to focus on that.

VENUS WILLIAMS AND RAJEEV RAM

Venus when you were sitting in your chair after the match what were all the thoughts that were going through your mind?

It is kind of what you are hoping for. I got to be honest I was secretly hoping to be in this position when we both got in. I think we both were if we admitted it. We kept saying we don’t know what’s going to happen – we’ve never played together – but then the thought of ‘oh my God this just happened… I don’t know it’s so surreal. I’m used to doing this with Serena so it’s such a crazy feeling doing it with someone else. It’s like a wild emotion, to feel what I feel with Serena with somebody else. I never thought that would happen.”

Silver medal winners Venus Williams (L) and Rajeev Ram (R) of the USA pose for a photo after the awarding ceremony for Mixed Doubles of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Tennis events at the Olympic Tennis Centre in the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 14 August 2016. EPA/MICHAEL REYNOLDS

Rajeev, I’m sure you could not have imagined being in this situation, maybe dreamed about it. What are your emotions now that you are guaranteed a medal?

It’s unreal, it’s surreal and [Venus] hit the nail on the head. It’s the Olympics and it’s pretty amazing to do it with someone else. We get along, we’ve known each other for years and to come out and do something like this is special and, with Venus, it’s fantastic.

When did you guys start feeling comfortable with each other?

I think after the first match we both felt comfortable.

Venus, does this run equal what you achieved with Serena at the Olympics?

With Serena I expect to win. And I’ve got to be honest we expect to win. We’ve (Rajeev) never played together. We had no idea how we were going to play together so the emotion is almost bigger because of the expectation that you don’t know what to expect. So it’s a wild and amazing feeling.

BETHANIE MATTEK-SANDS AND JACK SOCK

Jack, talk about this win…

It feels great. We’ve had fun all week. We were a couple of the last teams into the event. To have two American teams have two guaranteed medals is going to be an incredible feeling when we all walk out there tomorrow. Either way the U.S. national anthem will be playing on the podium which will be an incredible feeling. Hopefully we’re the ones standing there with the gold but either way we are going to go out there and have a blast like we have been doing all week. Having fun out there while playing good tennis so hopefully we can continue it tomorrow.

Bethanie, you are really gelling with Jack this week….

We’ve been having a good time. A lot of doubles is chemistry and when you have good communication and when you can joke around when so much is on the line that’s when everyone plays their best tennis. Win or lose we are here for each other. We are all going out there wanting to win. We just need to stick to our game plan and go for it.

Jack, you’re going for a second medal what does it mean?

It’s an incredible feeling. I came into the games not in my top health and I wanted to lay it on the line the best I could. If you would have told me that before I came here after I found out I had pneumonia that I will walk away with two medals in my first Olympics I would have said you’re crazy. Honestly it’s going to be an incredible feeling. I don’t think it has sunk in yet. It probably won’t until we are out there tomorrow playing and then on the podium. I just really wanted to help out the country and the team the best we could and I’m having a blast doing it.

2016 U.S. OLYMPIC TENNIS TEAM ROSTER

Brian Baker (singles, men’s doubles)

Steve Johnson (singles, men’s doubles)

Madison Keys (singles)

Denis Kudla (singles)

Bethanie Mattek-Sands (women’s doubles) mixed dubs GOLD medal !

Rajeev Ram (men’s doubles) mixed dubs silver medal !

Jack Sock (singles, men’s doubles) mixed dubs Gold medal !

Sloane Stephens (singles)

CoCo Vandeweghe (women’s doubles)

Serena Williams (singles, women’s doubles)

Venus Williams (singles, women’s doubles) mixed dubs SILVER medal !

ORIGINS OF OLYMPIC TENNIS

TENNIS IN THE MODERN GAMES

Tennis was one of the nine sports on the Olympic program at the first Modern Olympics in 1896 in Athens, Greece. The first Olympic tennis champion was John Boland, an Irishmen vacationing in Greece at the time of the first Modern Games and entered into the tennis competition upon the urging of a Greek classmate from Oxford. Boland, who would later found the University of Ireland and serve Britain as a member of Parliament, won the singles competition in an eight-man field and paired with a German, Fritz Traun, to sweep the doubles title.

Tennis was a fixture on the Olympic program through the 1924 Games in Paris. The International Tennis Federation – the international governing body for tennis – and the International Olympic Committee saw differences on the definition of amateurism, and on whether Wimbledon should be played in Olympic years. What resulted was the exclusion of tennis from the Olympic Games as an official medal sport until 1988 in Seoul, South Korea.

THE RETURN OF TENNIS AS A FULL MEDAL SPORT

Tennis triumphantly returned to the Olympic Games in 1988 in Seoul, becoming the first Olympic sport to allow professionals to compete (basketball followed suit in 1992). Steffi Graf of West Germany completed the rarest feat in the sport by capping a “Golden Slam” at the Seoul Games, having won all four major titles in professional tennis (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open) heading into the 1988 Games. Coincidentally, Graf’s husband – American Andre Agassi – is the only other player to win all for major singles titles and an Olympic gold medal in singles during their career.

Gold medal winners Bethanie Mattek-Sands (L) and Jack Sock of the USA pose for ap hoto after the awarding ceremony for Mixed Doubles of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Tennis events at the Olympic Tennis Centre in the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 14 August 2016. EPA/MICHAEL REYNOLDS

Topics: 10sballs, Rio 2016, Rio Olympics, Tennis News

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JMRDetablan says:

August 14, 2016 at 7:06 pm

RT @10sBalls_com: #Tennis Notes & Quotes From #Rio2016 – @BMATTEK & @JackSock Win Mixed Doubles Gold Medal
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10sBalls_com says:

August 14, 2016 at 7:11 pm

RT @10sBalls_com: #Tennis Notes & Quotes From #Rio2016 – @BMATTEK & @JackSock Win Mixed Doubles Gold Medal
https://t.co/FFba2Aswsx https://…