World No.1 Ashleigh Barty is leaving Tokyo with a medal around her neck. After an early defeat in singles, the Australian and her mixed doubles partner John Peers won bronze via a walkover from Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Nina Stojanovic.
BREAKING: Novak Djokovic has pulled out of the mixed doubles, which means…
Ash Barty and John Peers have won a bronze medal!#Tokyo2020 | #7Olympics pic.twitter.com/wZt3o2AHpl
— 7Olympics (@7olympics) July 31, 2021
Djokovic’s search for a “Golden Slam” came to an end on Friday as he lost to Alexander Zverev in the semifinals and then the ATP world No.1 also lost his bronze medal match to Pablo Carreno Busta in three sets on Saturday. After this pair of heart-breaking defeats, Djokovic withdrew from his mixed doubles bronze medal play-off, citing a left shoulder injury.
Barty’s and Peer’s bronze medal in mixed doubles represents Australia’s sixth in Olympic tennis – and their first since Alicia Molik won bronze in the women’s singles at Athens 2004.
Really feel bad for Nina not getting opportunity to get a bronze medal. I think Novak was tired and just wanted to get out of there. Hey, Marija the Serbian women’s volleyball team has a star in Tijana Bošković. She was basically a one woman team in leading her country to a bronze medal. If they had more outside hitters perhaps they would have beaten the USA and would be playing Brazil for the gold. Tijana also had a powerful lefty serve and had quite a few aces.
Jim, I watched an interview of Novak’s father who said that he advised him not to go to the Olympics, but Novak went because of his patriotism. It’s a shame that Nina didn’t get an opportunity to play for the bronze medal, but it was an amazing experience nevertheless.