Marcus Daniell and Michael Venus make history for New Zealand at Tokyo Olympics

Marcus Daniell and Michael Venus couldn't hide their happiness after delivering a historic first Olympic tennis medal for New Zealand. 

Daniell and Venus, two experienced doubles players, beat USA's Austin Krajicek and Tennys Sandgren 7-6 (3) 6-2 in the bronze medal match at the Tokyo Olympics.

Daniell couldn't fight back tears after making history for New Zealand. 

"They weren't my first tears of the Olympics, if I'm being honest... it just means so much," admitted Daniell., per the ITF website. "It always means more when you've got the silver fern on your chest and you're performing for your country in something so much bigger than yourself. You feel that fire and the group energy of New Zealand and the spirit of New Zealand. You feel that when you see the photos from back home, of everyone getting behind the whole team. 

"I can't describe how much that means. We don't often get to feel that on the tour. We have the country next to our name, but it's for ourselves. To be able to come to the Olympics and come away with a bronze and do it for New Zealand... it's just very surreal.

"We've made a little bit of history today and I really hope it's inspiring to the younger generation in New Zealand and gets people to pick up some tennis rackets and see it as a high performance sport, as an Olympic sport."

Daniell and Venus delivered in the bronze medal match 

Daniell and Venus had the first break point of the match in the seventh game but Krajicek and Sandgren saved to take a 4-3 lead. 

Four games later, Daniell and Venus had two break points but Krajicek and Sandgren once again saved those break point chances. 

Then the set went into a tie-break, in which Daniell and Venus took a 6-1 lead before realizing their third set point to win a tight opener. 

After winning a tight first set, Daniell and Venus claimed two breaks in the second set to book a straight-set win. 

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3ibqnCw