2024 Olympics tennis: Matt Ebden goes from lopsided loss in singles to doubles gold with John Peers

PARIS (AP) — Matt Ebden’s 2024 Olympics started with his first singles match in more than two years — a 6-0, 6-1 loss to Novak Djokovic as a fill-in after other players pulled out of that event. A week later, back in his element as a doubles player, Ebden will leave France as a gold medalist with partner John Peers.

Ebden and Peers won Australia’s second tennis gold medal in Summer Games history on Saturday, beating Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram of the United States 6-7 (6), 7-6 (1), 10-8 in a match tiebreaker in the men’s doubles final. Olympics doubles uses a first-to-10, win-by-two tiebreaker in place of a traditional third set.

“I knew this would come up,” Ebden said when asked about the way his Summer Games began. “Last night, I did think of it. I was actually dreaming of an Instagram post, like: ‘How it started; how it’s going.’ ... Swipe right, and there’s a gold-medal photo.”

Ebden and Peers trailed by a set and 4-2 in the second before breaking Ram’s serve to begin the comeback. Their tennis gold follows the one won for Australia by Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde in men’s doubles at Atlanta in 1996.

“It’s trippy. It’s more than a dream. I didn’t even dream of winning a gold medal growing up or whatever,” Ebden said. “The last few years, I had great success on the doubles court. It gave a lot of belief and confidence coming in here.”

He is a 36-year-old doubles specialist who has been ranked No. 1 in that event and has won two Slam trophies in men’s doubles and one in mixed. In singles? Until facing Djokovic — “My main goal in that match was just not to get injured,” Ebden joked Saturday — he hadn’t competed in a tour-level, main-draw singles match since June 2022.

Djokovic said he thinks the rules should be changed so someone like Ebden does not wind up on the court in singles at the Summer Games.

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Ebden hasn’t even had a singles ranking since he was No. 970 the week of May 29, 2023. But he already was in Paris to compete in men’s doubles and so that made him available for the singles competition when 16th-ranked Holger Rune of Denmark pulled out because of a wrist injury.

When Saturday’s match ended, the children of Peers and Ebden climbed out of the stands to hug their fathers. Ebden draped a replica gold medal around the neck of his son, whom he then tossed in the air and caught.

Peers, who won a bronze in mixed doubles with Ash Barty at the Tokyo Games three years ago, said his oldest daughter has been saying she wanted a gold. Now she can bring it to school for show-and-tell.

“They’re going to be talking about this one,” Peers said, “until we’re 100.”

Peers has been No. 2 in doubles and owns one Grand Slam title each in men’s doubles — which came by beating twins Bob and Mike Bryan in the final of the 2017 Australian Open — and mixed doubles.

The 40-year-old Ram, who is based in Indiana, was trying to become the oldest player to win an Olympics tennis gold — for men or women, in singles or doubles — since the sport returned to the Summer Games in 1988.

He and Krajicek, a 34-year-old who lives in Florida, also were trying to become the third U.S. duo to win a men’s doubles gold. The most recent had been the Bryans at London in 2012. The brothers were in the stands Saturday — Bob is the country’s men’s tennis coach in Paris, and Mike has been serving as a hitting partner and helping coach doubles.

Instead, Ram and Krajicek — who eliminated Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals — will head home with silvers.

Later Saturday, another American duo, Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul, won the bronze with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek of the Czech Republic. Machac and Katerina Siniakova won the gold in mixed doubles on Friday night.

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Associated Press writer Tom Nouvian contributed to this report.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games