The Tokyo Olympics marked the first edition since the 2004 Olympics in Athens where Serena Williams wasn’t seen in action. The American tennis legend played three consecutive editions from 2008 to 2016 and achieved tremendous success. However, her absence at the Tokyo Olympics badly hurt the American tennis contingent as they returned home empty-handed from the mega-event. Three years after the Tokyo heartbreak, the likes of Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul salvaged some pride for their country.

Earlier today, Fritz and Paul got the better of Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek in the bronze medal playoff match of men’s doubles. In what was a dominant show, the American duo absolutely dominated their opponents from start to end to win the encounter in straight sets 6-3, 6-4. Earlier, another American pair of Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek lost a thrilling men’s doubles summit clash against Matthew Ebden and John Peers to settle for a silver medal. With this, the United States finished with two medals from tennis, a much-improved show than that in Tokyo three years back.

Although Fritz and Paul seldom play doubles together, a third-place finish should be a proud achievement for them. After winning the bronze medal, Paul was elated with the team’s efforts and said, “It’s been amazing. For us to do it together and bring a medal back, it means everything. We’ve been as close as it gets since we’ve been 14-15 years old. So, just being on the same team together was super special, but to bring something back to the States means everything.”

On the other hand, there were contrasting emotions in the other American pair of Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek. The duo threw it all on the court but fell just short of the gold medal.

American pair left heartbroken as gold medal slips from grip

Although the American tennis contingent overcame the Tokyo heartbreak, a gold medal still eluded them. The likes of Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula had disappointing defeats here and the men’s doubles team of Ram and Krajicek could’ve easily won today’s summit clash on any other day. However, they fell short in the final-set tiebreaker and expressed disappointment over the result.

Krajicek revealed after the match, “It’s a difficult one to swallow. There’s no way to sugarcoat that. We had some really tough matches this week. We had some matches we’ll remember forever. That quarterfinal match was amazing.”

Meanwhile, it was the last appearance of the 40-year-old Ram at the Olympic Games. He finished his Olympic career with two medals, a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2024 Paris Olympics. During the post-match interview, he said, “If you had told me at the beginning of my career I’d have at least two Olympic medals, I would have said you’re crazy. That’s not going to happen. I’ll sign for that any day.”

Despite winning two medals in Paris, the United States tennis contingent is dearly missing the likes of Serena and Venus Williams. They were a force to reckon with at the Olympics and always ensured that their country never missed out on glory on the sporting world’s biggest stage.