Tokyo Olympics: Laura Pigossi, Luisa Stefani save 4 MPs to win bronze medal

Brazil's Laura Pigossi and Luisa Stefani have captured the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics after beating Russia's Veronika Kudermetova and Elena Vesnina 4-6 6-4 11-9. 

Kudermetova and Vesnina claimed the first break of the match in the second game but got broken back in the seventh game. 

However, Kudermetova and Vesnina held their focus as they broke Pigossi and Stefani again in the 10th game to clinch the opener. 

After losing the first set, Pigossi and Stefani started the second set with a break and held on to their serve the rest of the way to force a decider. 

In the match tie-break, Pigossi and Stefani were 9-5 down before winning six consecutive points to save four consecutive match points and complete a comeback win.

Pigossi and Stefani enjoy success in first team appearance of the year

Pigossi and Stefani played doubles together for the first time this year and managed to win a medal. 

Meanwhile, Vesnina still has one more match to play at the Tokyo Olympics. 

On Friday, Vesnina and Aslan Karatsev beat Novak Djokovic and Nina Stojanovic to reach the gold medal match in the mixed doubles event. 

“I feel sorry for Novak – it’s a tough day for him,” said Vesnina, per the ITF website. “But this is sport, this is tennis – the level is really high, the nerves are really high.

“We’re really happy that we won this match because we wanted to be in the final. We were focusing on every single point, we didn’t want to give anything. We knew that we were playing against such a champion like Novak – for me, it was such an honour to play against him, a dream come true, and I admire him. But it’s just great that we won today, we played such a solid match and I’m happy that we won it.”

Vesnina and Karatsev will play fellow Russians Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Andrey Rublev in the mixed doubles final. 

“We’re a team – we’ll congratulate them, it’s amazing,” Vesnina said. “On the court we will play against each other and try to win, but off the court nothing is going to change. Maybe we will have a few jokes about the match, but that’s it.”

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3fdKaz6