Rublev/ Pavlycuhenkova’s mixed doubles gold brings tennis at the Olympics to a nail-biting end

Rublev/ Pavlycuhenkova’s mixed doubles gold helped the Russian Olympic Committee top the tennis medal tally at the Tokyo Olympics

Andrey Rublev et Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova Jeux olympiques de Tokyo 2020

Tokyo 2020 Olympics – Tennis – Mixed Doubles – Gold medal match – Ariake Tennis Park – Tokyo, Japan – August 1, 2021. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of the Russian Olympic Committee and Andrey Rublev of the Russian Olympic Committee react during their gold medal match against Elena Vesnina of the Russian Olympic Committee and Aslan Karatsev of the Russian Olympic Committee

Haresh Ramchandani

August 1, 2021

Andrey Rublev and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova brought the tennis event at the Tokyo Olympics to a nail-biting end after saving a match point on the way to winning the mixed doubles gold medal on Sunday evening.

Rublev/ Pavlyuchenkova saved a match point to beat their compatriots Aslan Karatsev/ Elena Vesnina 6-3, 6-7, 13-11 in one hour and 54 minutes.

The curtain comes down on #Tennis at #Tokyo2020 as @AndreyRublev97 and @NastiaPav win gold in the mixed doubles…
— ITF (@ITFTennis) August 1, 2021

Olympic silver continues incredible comeback for Vesnina

The tournament turned out to be an incredible event from Vesnina, who also lost in the bronze medal play-off match in the women’s doubles and reached the second round of the women’s singles event. She also has a gold medal from the 2016 Rio Games from the women’s doubles event.

35-year-old Vesnina only came back to the tour earlier this year, after giving birth to her daughter in November 2018. She also reached the final of the women’s doubles at Wimbledon and is already back up to No 56 in the world doubles rankings.

Russian Olympic Committee lead tennis medal table at the Tokyo Olympics

With the tennis event coming to an end in Tokyo, the Russian Olympic Committee ended the Games with the most number of tennis medals – three (one gold, two silver).

Croatia, Czech Republic and Switzerland all finished with two medals (one gold, one silver each).

As Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Andrey Rublev take gold for the Russian Olympic Committee in the mixed doubles, here’s the final tennis medal table – as per @ITFMedia pic.twitter.com/uaAyIDtmGE
— Russell Fuller (@russellcfuller) August 1, 2021