Auger-Aliassime, Dabrowski win Canada's 2nd-ever Olympic tennis medal with mixed doubles bronze
Montreal’s Auger-Aliassime to play for singles bronze on Saturday after semifinal loss
Two children of immigrants united by a shared passion for tennis have earned Canada its second Olympic medal in the sport.
Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski and Montreal's Felix Auger-Aliassime won the mixed doubles bronze Friday at the Paris Games with a 6-3, 7-6 (2) victory over Demi Schuurs and Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands.
"It's incredible," Auger-Aliassime said. "I've won tournaments during my individual career, but winning as a team means something different. The emotions are doubled.
"It means a lot to me. I have vivid memories of the Olympic Games ... Adding my name to the list of Canadian medallists is a great pleasure, it's a career achievement."
Canada's only other Olympic tennis medal came in 2000, when Daniel Nestor and Sebastien Lareau beat the heavily favoured Australian duo of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde in the men's doubles final at the Sydney Games.
WATCH l Dabrowski, Auger-Aliassime end Canada's Olympic tennis medal drought:
Nestor was born in Serbia and had a prolific doubles career representing Canada.
Meanwhile, Dabrowski is the daughter of Polish parents, while Auger-Aliassime's father is from Togo.
"The best thing about Canada is that we're extremely multicultural and that we welcome a lot of different people from a lot of different places around the world," Dabrowski said.
"We try to have a great quality of life and I feel like we're very inclusive, not every country can say that they share those values and that they're built on those principles. I find it very easy to represent Canada because I share those principles and I feel very lucky to have been born in a country that allowed for opportunity.
Auger-Aliassime has a chance to add to the medal haul when he plays for men's singles bronze on Saturday against Italy's Lorenzo Musetti.
The 23-year-old won't play for gold after losing 6-1, 6-1 to Spanish star Carlos Alcaraz in a semifinal earlier Friday. Alcaraz will play top seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the final.
Less than three hours after his loss, Auger-Aliassime joined Dabrowski.
Dabrowski and Auger-Aliassime played with far more confidence than the day before when they lost swiftly to Czechia's Katerina Siniakova and Tomas Machac in the semifinals.
"It's crazy how a good night's sleep can make a difference," Auger-Aliassime said.
WATCH l Auger-Aliassime falls to Alcaraz in Olympic semifinal:
They won the last two points of the second-set tiebreaker on return, and clinched the medal when Dabrowski forced a Schuurs error on match point to end the meeting in 93 minutes.
The Canadians appeared to be coasting to victory on the clay courts of Roland Garros and led 4-2 in the second set, but the Dutch tandem held in the seventh game, then came down from a 40-15 deficit to score a lifesaving break to tie the set 4-4.
The Canadians recovered and took an early 3-0 lead in the second set tiebreaker. After Schuurs and Koolhof cut the lead to one with two points on serve, the Canadians answered with four straight points to reach the podium.
Dabrowski added an Olympic medal to her prolific record that includes a women's doubles championship at the 2023 U.S. Open and mixed doubles titles at the French Open (2017) and Australian Open (2018).
Auger-Aliassime said his father wasn't in Paris this week, but that he had exchanged messages with him.
"His love for Canada is even more important than that of those who were born there because this country gave him the chance to advance to another level in his life," Auger-Aliassime said. "For him it's extremely important every time I can represent the country that saw me grow up, and to do it as best I can.
"I think it's a great source of pride for him and my entire family to have contributed to an Olympic medal."
Auger-Aliassime was also happy he made amends with Dabrowski after feeling like he let her down in the semifinal.
"I felt like I wanted to be better for the team, and for Gaby because she's had a long and successful career, and this is a medal she deserves," said Auger-Aliassime. "I'm happy to be a part of it."
In the mixed doubles gold medal game, it was Katerina Siniakova and Tomáš Machác from the Czech Republic prevailing over China's Zhang Zhizhen and Wang Xinyu 6-2, 5-7, 10-8.
Singles semifinal loss
The day didn't start as well for Auger-Aliassime.
After four nearly perfect performances in men's singles — including victories against No. 4 Daniil Medvedev and No. 6 Casper Ruud — he hit a wall against Alcaraz in the semifinals.
The second-seeded Spaniard didn't face a break point and converted five of his nine break chances while cruising to victory in 75 minutes against No. 13 Auger-Aliassime.
"I was outclassed," Auger-Aliassime said after the match.
The 21-year-old Alcaraz continued his dominant form at Roland Garros, winning his 12th straight singles match at the venue after capturing the French Open title earlier this year.
"He is very, very strong," Auger-Aliassime said. "There's no doubt he's the best player in the world right now, I have to raise my level to compete with him or [Novak] Djokovic.
"In many areas of the game, he dominated me, especially in the key areas of our respective games."
Swiatek earns women's bronze
Iga Swiatek dabbed at her eyes with a white towel while sitting on her sideline chair at the 2024 Olympics after a lickety-split, clean-as-can-be win Friday that earned a bronze for Poland's first tennis medal at any Summer Games.
Sure, she beat Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-1 in 59 minutes on Friday, but make no mistake: These were not purely tears of joy.
They were, at least in part, remnants of the disappointment — devastation, really — the No. 1-ranked Swiatek felt after a poor performance a day prior cost her a shot at what she really wanted, what she kind of figured she would head home with: gold. She's a perfectionist, for one thing, and someone who, frankly, rarely loses anywhere, least of all on the red clay at Roland Garros, the site of her four French Open titles and home to Olympic tennis this year.
"After the match, I was pretty confused, because I still feel like I lost yesterday, and that was kind of a huge loss," Swiatek said. "On the other hand, I won today so I should be proud of that. There's like a lot of mixed emotions and still is."
Swiatek played much more cleanly than she did Thursday in a straight-set semifinal loss to Zheng Qinwen. That result ended Swiatek's 25-match unbeaten streak at Roland Garros, which includes three championships in a row at the French Open.
Zheng faces Donna Vekic in the women's final on Saturday.
Russia's Andreeva, Shnaider give AIN a shot at gold
Russian players Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider gave the group competing as Individual Neutral Athletes, known by the French acronym AIN, a chance of a tennis gold medal at the Paris Olympics by winning Friday to reach the women's doubles final.
Andreeva,17, and Shnaider, a 20-year-old who played one season of American college tennis at North Carolina State, beat the eighth-seeded team of Cristina Bucsa and Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals.
Russia and Belarus were banned by the International Olympic Committee from team sports at the Paris Games because of the war in Ukraine that began in February 2022. Individual athletes with Russian or Belarusian passports were allowed to compete as neutrals if they qualified and then were approved for entry to the Olympics.
They will face the Italian pair of Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in the final, after they beat Karolína Muchová and Linda Nosková of the Czech Republic 6-3,6-2.
On Friday, Ivan Litvinovich and Viyaleta Bardzilouskaya, both of Belarus, won the first medals by AIN athletes at the Paris Olympics, both in trampoline. Litvinovich claimed gold for the men, and Bardzilouskaya got the women's silver.
Shnaider, whose family lives in Moscow, and Andreeva, whose training base is in Cannes, France, eliminated the second-seeded pairing of Katerina Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic — the Tokyo Olympics champions — in the quarterfinals.
After that win, the Russians were asked how it felt not to be able to represent their country at the Olympics.
"For me, it does not matter. I just go out there and play," Andreeva said. "It just doesn't matter what is happening outside of tennis."
Andreeva reached her first Grand Slam singles semifinal at the French Open in June, played on the samr Roland Garros courts as the Olympic tournament.
In the men's doubles tournament, Australia's Matthew Ebden and John Peers clinched their spot in gold medal game on Friday, beating the American pairing of Taylor Fritz and Paul Tommy 7-5, 6-2. The duo will get set to face another U.S. pairing in the final, after Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek knocked off the Czech duo of Adam Pavlásek and Tomáš Machác 6-2, 6-2.
Swiatek, Alcaraz among stars pulling out of Canadian Open
After competing in an intense week-long Olympic schedule, several stars have started dropping of the upcoming National Bank Open in Toronto and Montreal, getting a slight rest in before the U.S. Open hits Flushing Meadows, N.Y. from Aug. 26 - Sept. 8.
Alcaraz and Djokovic, the second and third ranked players in the world, announced they would miss the Canadian ATP Masters 1000 event., scheduled for Aug. 3-12, with Swiatek puling out on Friday evening.
Also withdrawing were Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova, who has a thigh injury, and world No. 4 Elena Rybakina, who is battling bronchitis.
The trio were only part of a growing list of withdrawals, which also includes Jasmine Paolini (No. 5), Maria Sakkari (No. 8), Danielle Collins (No. 9), Marketa Vondrousova (No. 18) and Caroline Garcia (No. 26).
The tournament's official draw, for both the men's event in Montreal and the women's event in Toronto, will be held Saturday with qualification beginning Sunday.
With files from The Associated Press
