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For the first time since 1996, Australia has a gold medal in tennis as WA’s Matt Ebden and John Peers claimed gold in a dramatic men’s doubles final at Roland Garros.
The Aussie pair were in trouble early after they were broken on their third service game following a communication breakdown that saw both men in the same half of the court.
But Ebden showed terrific hustle before Peers’ pinpoint placement had the Australians looking at two break points with Rajeev Ram releasing the scoreboard pressure with a double fault to get the game back on serve.
As he has shown all tournament Ebden’s fitness has been elite able to keep points alive as he was often forced to scramble as Peers was struggling on his serves with the Australians only managing to win 58 per cent of first service points in the first set.
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With neither pair having dropped a set all tournament we were always heading for a tiebreak and it was here where their first service troubles began to really hurt Australia.
They found themselves down a minibreak early before a booming forehand from Ebden got them back on level pegging.
But Peers was shaky on service again and though his second serve was just perfect Ram’s return was even better.
Staring down the barrel of set-point it was Ebden who came up clutch again to keep the game alive but on his next serve, a first fault seemed just break his nerve as Ram speared a forehand drive that was too hot for the Aussie to handle as he and Peers dropped their first set for the tournament.
It was all the opening that the USA team needed as they broke early in the second set which they quickly consolidated as the Aussie duo could not find the answers to Ram’s booming forehands.
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Austin Krajicek was feeding off his partner’s energy as he began to find some stunning winners but just as it looked like the Australians were to succumb they lifted to stay in the fight.
The only weakness in Ram’s game had been on his serve and as they did in the first set Peers and Ebden pounced as they pulled themselves back into the game at 4-4.
Peers was then able to hold serve despite his first double fault of the match as Ebden showed his volley and lob prowess to get the crowd on their feet to edge Australia in front.
Another tiebreak followed but the Aussies came out flying rifling off the first four points to go 4-0 up before taking it 6-1.
It meant they had all the momentum heading into the super-tiebreak.
Up 9-5, the gold medal was in their hands but three straight points to the Americans put all the pressure on Peers’ serve at 9-8.
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