Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram, came from a set down to defeat the fourth-seeded Indian pair of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna in the semifinals of the Mixed Doubles event at the Rio Olympics. The American duo ousted the Indians 2-6, 6-2, 10-3 to storm into the finals, assuring a medal for USA. This win also makes Williams, the only player in the modern era to win a medal in all the three events.
Indians dominate the first set
In the first set, both the male players came up with big serves to hold on to their respective games which leveled the set at 1-1. The next game saw Williams being broken to love, courtesy of excellent returning and volleying from Bopanna, giving the Indians a 2-1 lead. The set saw Bopanna at his best with great backhand returns and sharp volleying skills, thus dominating the course of the set. At 2-4, Williams’ serve was broken again with top returning from Bopanna, giving the chance for Mirza to wrap things up. With Bopanna finishing off volleys at the net, Mirza served out the first set 6-2.
Venus Williams finds her groove
High on confidence, the Indians had half the match in their pocket, feeling that they could do no wrong when things started changing for them. Venus Williams, who had a very passive first set, came to life and the Americans started playing better at the start of the second set. The course of the match changed at 1-1 when Williams came up with big serves to hold for the first time in this match, automatically shifting the pressure to Mirza’s serve. A nervous Mirza committed a few unforced errors and found herself staring at a break point.
Mirza saved a break point to level the game at deuce and also earned a game point with Ram hitting an unforced error. The game was swinging back and forth with the Indians failing to convert two game points. Eventually, the pressure got to Mirza and her game was broken, which was the turning point of the match. From then on, Williams could do no mistake and the Americans were quickly clawing their way back into the match. Consecutive service holds gave a 5-2 lead for the American pair and they broke Mirza’s serve again wrapping the second set 6-2.
Match TieBreaker
In the match tiebreaker, an unforced error from Ram gave a mini-break to the Indian duo. Bopanna then came up with an ace but double faulted on the next serve to bring it back on serve at 2-1. Mirza found her forehand during Ram’s serve and earned a mini-break once again with Indian pair having a 3-1 lead. However, both of Mirza's serves were broken and the Americans got a headway in the tiebreaker having a 4-3 edge. Onwards, uncharacteristic unforced errors from the Indians along with premature movements leaving the courts open, saw the Americans blazing through the tie-break and wrapping things up at 10-3.
The Americans will play for the gold medal against the winners of the other semi-final encounter between Radek Stepanek/Lucie Hradecka and Jack Sock/Bethanie Mattek-Sands. On the other hand, the Indians will fight out for a bronze medal against the losing team.