There were, of course, other men’s events being played.
Andy Murray, who won gold in men’s singles, came back shortly after his performance to team up with Laura Robson in the mixed doubles final. Their opponents were the Belarussian duo of Max Mirnyi and Victoria Azarenka. In a way, Mirnyi and Azarenka, as the number one seed, were favored. They had even won a mixed doubles Slam way back in the 2007 US Open. Mirnyi has been playing with Daniel Nestor the last year or two, and has been ranked either 1 or 2.
Despite tennis having been played since the early 1990s in the Olympics, 2012 was the first year mixed doubles was played. Mirnyi, at age 35, saw this as his best opportunity. Belarus doesn’t produce a lot of good tennis players. Victoria Azarenka is the best female player. In 4 years, who knows whether Mirnyi will be playing tennis? True, doubles players can easily last into their late 30s. The Bryan brothers are in their mid 40s.
The match started off very well for Murray and Robson just like the semifinals. They were able to secure several breaks including Mirnyi, and took the first set comfortably 6-2. But young Robson, at age 18, proved a bit nervous. Mirnyi began to return better, and Robson had her serve broken while Azarenka held her own serve, a key to victory in mixed doubles. Robson also double-faulted twice on her own serve in the champions tiebreak, a race to ten that is used instead of a full third set. The Brits were unable to win enough points against the Belarussian duo, and they won gold with a 10-8 score in the champion’s tiebreak.
Mike Bryan teamed up with Lisa Raymond in mixed doubles. They were considered the less favored of the combined best men’s and women’s doubles team. However, brother Bob Bryan partnered with Liezel Huber, and this duo exited in the first round. Bryan and Raymond lost to Mirnyi and Azarenka, but they were able to beat Lisicki and Das to claim the bronze in mixed doubles. Despite Raymond and Huber having won every doubles Slam and reached the bronze medal round in doubles, neither had ever won an Olympic gold. However, Raymond did get one more medal.
Speaking of men’s doubles, the Bryan brothers had only won Olympic bronze back in 2008. They had lost to the makeshift Swiss team of Federer and Wawrinka who beat them in the semis and took the gold medal in the finals. Although they were en route to meet the Swiss duo again, the Swiss team lost to the veteran Israeli team of Erlich and Ram. The Bryan brothers then beat Erlich and Ram in the quarterfinals. The Bryans then beat two French teams in succession. In the semis, they beat Gasquet and Benneteau. In the gold medal round, they beat Llodra and Tsonga in straight sets. This was highlighted by a lob off a smash by the French at match point that sent Bob Bryan rushing to the back of the court and landed near the baseline on the other side. A few more shots, and the Americans had secured the match.
Llodra and Tsonga had played a marathon match against Ferrer and Lopez and won 19-17 in the third in the semifinals. Ferrer and Lopez would lose to Gasquet and Benneteau in the bronze medal round. So, the French, maybe unable to win on clay at the French Open, are still solid doubles players.
Because of the scheduling of the Olympics so close to two Masters 1000 events (Toronto next week and Cincinnati the week after), two top players have dropped out of the Toronto Masters 1000 event to be played next week. Roger Federer announced that he would not be playing. Rafael Nadal, who had already skipped the Olympics, chose to skip Toronto as well. This leaves Djokovic and Murray as the top seeds.
Murray has blamed his focus on both Toronto/Montreal and Cincinnati for early losses in the US Open. Murray had a strategic early loss in Toronto last year and then won Cincinnati. He reached the US Open semis for the first time last year since 2008, the year he reached the finals. In 2009, he had lost to Cilic and in 2010, to Stan Wawrinka. Expect Murray to play a token round or two and exit early in Toronto. Djokovic, on the other hand, does have something to play for. He’s the defending champ at Toronto. Leaving the Olympics without a medal, he might want to make himself feel better with a solid performance at Toronto.
Finally, there is tennis being played outside the Olympics. With only 64 in the draw, and each nation allowed to only send 4 players per gender in the singles, there were players that either failed to be eligible for Olympics, or simply didn’t qualify. Tommy Haas found himself in a weird spot. Despite having won a grass event in Halle, his rank wasn’t high enough to make the Olympic draw, and Germany didn’t seem to plead his case for a spot in the Olympics, so Haas went to Washington DC. Dolgopolov would also have made the Olympics, but for whatever reason, he didn’t attend.
The duo beat Americans, Sam Querrey and Mardy Fish, in the Washington DC semis. Querrey’s rank was not high enough at the time (early June) to qualify for the Olympics. Querrey claims that he would have skipped the Olympics. Coming off injury, Querrey is still working to get his rank back up. He won Los Angeles last week, but lost to the hard hitting Alexandr Dolgopolov in the semis. Fish would have qualified too, but chose to skip the Olympics having already won an Olympic silver medal back in 2004 and unlikely to medal. Fish lost to Tommy Haas in the semis.