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feather_ghyll) wrote2024-08-03 09:30 am
feather_ghyll) wrote2024-08-03 09:30 am
SPORTS: Paris 2024, mainly tennis, but with some gymnastics
Day six: the women’s tennis singles semi finals. First up, Swiatek against Zheng Qinwen, who I was reminded had been the Australian Open finalist. Swiatek had to be the favourite, but it was a different kind of Swiatek who was on the court. She hit uncharacteristic errors, some of them because she was forcing it, while Zheng played much better. After Swiatek lost the first set, predictably enough, she went off for a ‘bathroom break’ and a lengthy one at that. (We also had her holding up a racquet at various points, delaying the server, although the crowd were in and out. On the one hand, they’re not a tennis crowd, but they’re a very different crowd to the one you normally get at Roland Garros, as was the case at Wimbledon in 2012. Mainly, that’s been a positive, there’s so much colour and enthusiasm. The stands have been much fuller, even though it has been hot and humid.)
Refreshed, Swiatek got a run of four games, and it was Zheng’s turn to wonder what to do, but in the fifth game, she steadied herself and upped her level and got on a run of her own. Swiatek was so busy searching for her level, while that blip aside, Zheng had a good level, and could mostly hit freely and have time to read the play. There was a bit more drama, but Zheng was the better player on the day and is through and guaranteed a medal, going one better than Li Na. Perhaps this will be the start of the 21-year-old stepping up into the top ranks.
Swiatek will have to regroup fast, because I always favoured the loser of this match for the bronze. It’s not the gold that Swiatek so desperately wanted, but it’s not nothing. They would show a post-match interview that did not seem promising. She was obviously gutted and talking about problems with her backhand. If her opponent’s team see that, it might give them hope. I suppose she’s less used to having to adapt to grind it out than most players.
Women’s tennis, eh!? Three seeds were through to the semis, but only one of them was from the top four seeds. (In contrast, the top four favourite male players were through to the quarters – Ruud is better on clay than his ranking.)
Next up, Alcaraz vs. Paul. It was always going to be entertaining. Alcaraz leads the head to head, but Paul has had wins on him. But they’d never played on clay before. Would last night’s loss in the doubles trouble Alcaraz? For both of them, this quarter final was a step up in quality of opponent. From the outset, it was clear that Paul had a plan, but Alcaraz had focus, and midway through the set, he broke with authority, backed it up and had the first set in the bag.
At the start of the second set. Paul recognised that his gameplan was the right one and that he hadn’t played terribly in the first set, so he stuck at it. But Alcaraz wasn’t too happy – there was a lot of chuntering, some of it about the surface. Was it a lack of focus? Anyway, Paul broke and was up 3-0. Alcaraz regained his serve, but could not break Paul until the American was serving for the set, and clearly nervous. A few inspired shots later and they were in a tiebreak, where Alcaraz barely got a first serve in and it was close, with mini breaks being overturned, until we got to the match point vs. set point situation. Alcaraz played the bigger points better, and now has three wins on Paul in a row. He’s also through to his first Olympics semi-final.
I then decided to watch the women’s individual all-round gymnastics final on the Beeb, which was quite a tester, as I was watching it and thus switching channels live. A different vibe to the men’s, as it was all about Biles’s comeback, really, and with only four pieces of apparatus, every score counted more. Two Americans, two Italians, Rebeca Andrade and Kaylia Neymar in the top group, with an eye on the hugely experienced Elsbeth Black, who would occasionally get into the top 3, 6 or 10, and the two Brits, Alice Kinsella and Georgia May Fenton. (I always feel sorry for people like the third placed American, who ought to have been there on merit, but only two gymnasts per country are allowed.)
The top group started on vault, and Simone Biles’s difficulty level was just ridiculous. Andrade, one of the medal contenders, and a gymnast’s gymnast did well, while Lee (the reigning champion after Biles’s famous withdrawal at Tokyo) had a disappointing landing. Alice D’Amato was also doing good, steady work, while Black had had a strong uneven bars routine. The Chinese gymnast who’d qualified seventh had some problems.
The top group moved to uneven bars, which is where it got particularly interesting. Biles was a little wild and had quite a big deduction, although she saved it from being worse. Manolo of Italy fell off, and would always be off the pace. Andrade had a good routine, which put her first, Lee had a good routine, which started making up for her vault, D’Amato also had a good routine, but the (French-)Algerian Neymar mostly pulled off the routine with the highest difficulty value of all gymnasts, male and female: 7.2. There was one bit she wasn’t happy with, but it was a staggering routine, and pulled her up into the top three.
Next for them, beam, which is always tricky although a lot of the top qualifiers had qualified for the beam final, and they were all good, although Neymar had to fight hard, while Biles did enough to regain her hopes for the gold. Black did a very striking floor routine.
But although it was highly probable that Biles would get gold and Andrade silver, the bronze and the final scores would be decided on the floor. D’Amato did a good job, but had an agonising wait to see whether it would be good enough for a medal. Neymar did a good job. She’s only 17 and has already improved on most of her apparatuses that aren’t the amazing uneven bars, hence getting herself into this elite company. Manolo had some ouchy landings, but did manage to complete the required front element she’d messed up in teams. She too is only 17 and perhaps not quite ready. There was a lot of talk as to whether the gymnasts were too tired or settling, having had enough time to be familiar with the apparatus and environment. I think it depended on the individual, with experience obviously helping the older ones.
Lee danced beautifully and tumbled powerfully, dislodging D’Amato. Andrade too, was excellent, and guaranteed herself silver or better. Last of all came Biles, and her tumbling is something else, even I could see the amazing height. A minor step out, but all the elements were covered off, and we waited for the confirmation that she’d done it, which she had, of course. A winning return for her, a deserved silver for Andrade and a satisfying bronze for Lee. Hard for D’Amato to be fourth, while Neymar was a promising fifth. At one point it looked as though Kinsella would have finished in the top 10, but her last rotation was on beam.
I returned to the tennis and saw that Djokovic had won against Tsitsipas in two sets, but might have done something to his knee. I then saw the end of the Murray-Evans vs Fritz-Paul match, and although the two Brits put up a fight right at the end, the Americans won in two sets, which much have been satisfying for Paul, even though it ended up being Murray’s last farewell. I learned that Evans had given up the chance to defend his win at Washington to play at the Olympics, which is a lot of points to lose. As for Murray, I think it’s going to be wrenching to give up tennis, but time and his body have run out.
Last of all came the women’s other semi-final, and there was commentary, so I learned that ‘surprise package’ Schmiedlova had only beaten a top 10 player once before this tournament, and that was at the Rio Olympics, so there must be something about playing for Slovakia and the multi-sport environment that lifts her game. Vekic has transferred the form she showed on grass to her weaker surface, having beaten Gauff on the way, although she had been playing late last night. Would that tell in any way? In her favour, her style is front-foot forward.
The first few games were cagey, but Vekic started hitting winners (such a mighty forehand) and Schmiedlova was broken. It took a real effort for her to avoid being broken twice, but she couldn’t get much of anywhere on Vekic’s service games, as the Croat had too much power and too much pace. Vekic won the first set, and was in total control in the second set. Apart from her big shots, she pulled off a few dropshots and Schmiedlova could not cope or find a way through. Indeed, she couldn’t win a game in the second set. They must have closed the roof during the match, which was a good job, because the rain hammered down in the last couple of games – there were lightning strikes over Paris, and by the end the rain was coming in through the ridges, but although you could barely hear the ball being struck, Vekic continued playing well to win, guaranteeing herself one of the top two medals. She was disbelieving and overwhelmed, but it’s such a good job and so nice after her hard loss at Wimbledon. She’ll be glad of a day off before facing Zheng, who has her own firepower.
Schmiedlova will have less time to regroup, although it depends on what kind of Swiatek she faces. It’ll be a very interesting bronze medal match mainly for what it tells us about Swiatek’s headspace.
I got caught up on all the results. Surprisingly, Musetti beat Zverev and will be having a rematch with a potentially injured Djokovic. More surprisingly, perhaps, Auger-Aliasseme beat Ruud – although the Canadian has also advanced in mixed doubles. Boulter and Watson lost to the Italians in the ladies’ doubles, more surprisingly, Kreijikova and Simiacova are out, but Simiacova and her boyfriend will be playing in the gold medal match against a Chinese pair who were alternates, so they got in because another team dropped out. I won’t go through them all, but it’s a mix of surprises and established teams.
Day seven: the first men’s singles semi-final, where Alcaraz faced Auger-Aliasseme with the comfort of knowing he’d won their last three encounters quite easily. He chose to receive and it was a closely contested first game, which showed that Auger-Aliasseme had to play close to his best to stave Alcaraz off, who then showed the difference in level by winning his serve easily. They were both focused, but Alcaraz was winning most points in a variety of different ways, Auger-Aliasseme was trying everything, and Alcaraz had the answer. There was none of the grumpiness of the previous match, and perhaps some of that was the mentality of knowing he had had the best of his opponent.
He won the first set, and looked to be at the same level in the second set, running most balls down, and playing some brilliant shots to set up an easy winner. So, he broke early, and absolutely dismantled the Canadian. The crowd were relatively quiet, because it was more of a rout than a match. Alcaraz looked delighted after it was called, as he should, having guaranteed himself a medal, and if he plays like that, it’ll be gold.
The women’s singles bronze medal match followed, and I suppose a couple of words applied to both players: ‘representing Slovakia’ and ‘representing Poland.’ We’d all seen how devastated Swiatek had been the day before, and Schmiedlova had been beaten quite late last night. But Swiatek started more like her usual self, which made her the favourite – Schmiedlova is only ranked no. 70. But then Schmiedlova broke quite early, and we wondered how fragile Swiatek’s seeming composure was.
But a break only counts if you hold your serve after, and Schmiedlova couldn’t, while Swiatek focused and from that point ran away with the set. Schmiedlova’s serve was an area of vulnerability, her first serve level wasn’t high enough and her second serve delivery not a problem. She did more than she had against Vekic, but as soon as Swiatek broke again, it was inevitable, and the match only lasted an hour. No big celebrations from Swiatek, but instead there were tears, probably from mixed emotions, but credit to her for regrouping enough and to her team from getting her in the right headspace.
I’d been updated that Peers and Ebden (proper doubles players) had beaten Paul and Fritz for the gold medal men’s doubles match, while Errani and Paolini had made it through to the gold medal match in the women’s doubles. Who would join them? I got to see the end of the semi-final, where the very young Andreeva and Shnaider needed about six match points to beat the Spanish team.
(Aargh, the athletics are starting! But there were no artistic gymnastics this day.)
I caught a glimpse of the bronze mixed doubles match (Canada would win, so after the low of the singles, Felix Auger-Aliasseme had quite a high.)
The build up for the last men’s singles semi-final was a reminder of how well Musetti has been playing lately – he’d come straight from a final on the tour to compete in the Olympics and not dropped a set. I was more aware of Djokovic’s run, and of course, the big question was the state of his knee. Would that and all the confidence he’d gained favour Musetti, who had pushed Djokovic more when they met at the French Open than he had at Wimbledon?
The first set produced excellent, entertaining tennis. Musetti tested Djokovic’s movement, as he should, but after some initial tentativeness, it seemed fine. Meanwhile Djokovic tested Musetti in return. Musetti took a couple of games to get a first serve in, so he did well to fend off Djokovic’s return. There were stylish shots (more from Musetti) and several break points, all of which got saved. The tension ramped up, and Djokovic was bouncing the ball five times before getting into his ful- on preparations, where he either bounced it a further nine or eleven times. The umpire finally gave a warning about that. (Even allowing for the crowd shouting out or lengthy rallies, Djokovic had been over the 25 seconds repeatedly.)
Serving at 4-5, Musetti got up to 40-0, but could not take one of his three game points, letting Djokovic back in, certainly with one misdirected response to a short ball. For me, it was about his mentality, and a drop shot error handed Djokovic the set. Musetti took it out on his racquet.
But the second set was a completely different beast, mystifyingly so. Djokovic was up, serving first, and instead of pressing on, he was making errors and having a whinge (it was never clear if it was about the wind or his team not giving him enough support or the right support). He got another time violation (which he never does even though he totally deserves it) and lost a serve. He then went to have a word with the umpire and got a warning for an audible obscenity (couldn’t hear it) and then had another word with the umpire about that. His head was out of it, and so he lost his serve.
This was Musetti’s chance on a silver platter, but he couldn’t take it. Whether he was still not over losing the first set or Djokovic’s dip in level was catching, we had a series of breaks, a bit of the crowd booing Djokovic, who was still chuntering at his team, but midway through the set, he held. Musetti would never hold serve all set. He wasn’t playing his best, neither was Djokovic, but the latter was better able to direct his churning emotions to make telling shots. He is, of course, more used to playing at a high level for high stakes, (but I don’t think Alcaraz or Sinner would have crumbled mentally in the same way, and that’s why, for all his talent, Musetti isn’t quite there yet, and may not be.) How high the stakes were were clear from his emotional response to winning. Djokovic has never won an Olympics semi-final for all the times he's been in one. He’s guaranteed himself (and Serbia) a silver or gold. (He was trying to play down his chances in the post-match interview, recognising Alcaraz is the man of the moment, but, yeah, like he isn’t going to want to win like fire the moment he steps back on Chatrier.) Well, it’s the final we all wanted.
The first tennis gold medal would be won in the mixed doubles, which I haven’t seen properly all tournament. On the one hand, the Czech team of Simiacova and Mahach had not dropped a set, having beaten the top seeds early. Simiacova already has an Olympics gold medal. For China, Wang and Zheng, the latter doing amazing things for Chinese men’s tennis, were an alternate team who only knew they’d be playing in the Olympics a few hours before the first round. They had gone to the champions tiebreak in every single match, and Mahach had already beaten Zheng in the singles.
The two teams were strikingly smiley when they stepped on the court, but it was serious business once play started. All four players kept their serve, and then, because of the Czech’s sharp netplay, they broke the Chinese man (ouch.) Breaking his partner too meant that they won the first set handily.
The Chinese team came back for the second set with more intensity and power, and kept their serves, plus won more exchanges. I dipped out of the middle of the second set, but it was on serve at the business end, and Simiacova was serving (with what looked like a sore arm) and got broken, meaning it was a set all and down to a champions tiebreak, which felt like it was playing into the Chinese team’s hands.
The tiebreak was a tense affair as everyone seemed to struggle to keep their serves – Zheng double faulting to give the Czech team a chance at the end, which they took. Delight for the Czech pair and their country, as tennis is one of Czechia’s better chances for a medal. I watched the medal ceremony (with Felix A-A turning up for a late night given that he has another bronze medal match tomorrow, but he won’t mind staying up to get an Olympic medal.) Simiacova was in tears as her anthem rang out.
Refreshed, Swiatek got a run of four games, and it was Zheng’s turn to wonder what to do, but in the fifth game, she steadied herself and upped her level and got on a run of her own. Swiatek was so busy searching for her level, while that blip aside, Zheng had a good level, and could mostly hit freely and have time to read the play. There was a bit more drama, but Zheng was the better player on the day and is through and guaranteed a medal, going one better than Li Na. Perhaps this will be the start of the 21-year-old stepping up into the top ranks.
Swiatek will have to regroup fast, because I always favoured the loser of this match for the bronze. It’s not the gold that Swiatek so desperately wanted, but it’s not nothing. They would show a post-match interview that did not seem promising. She was obviously gutted and talking about problems with her backhand. If her opponent’s team see that, it might give them hope. I suppose she’s less used to having to adapt to grind it out than most players.
Women’s tennis, eh!? Three seeds were through to the semis, but only one of them was from the top four seeds. (In contrast, the top four favourite male players were through to the quarters – Ruud is better on clay than his ranking.)
Next up, Alcaraz vs. Paul. It was always going to be entertaining. Alcaraz leads the head to head, but Paul has had wins on him. But they’d never played on clay before. Would last night’s loss in the doubles trouble Alcaraz? For both of them, this quarter final was a step up in quality of opponent. From the outset, it was clear that Paul had a plan, but Alcaraz had focus, and midway through the set, he broke with authority, backed it up and had the first set in the bag.
At the start of the second set. Paul recognised that his gameplan was the right one and that he hadn’t played terribly in the first set, so he stuck at it. But Alcaraz wasn’t too happy – there was a lot of chuntering, some of it about the surface. Was it a lack of focus? Anyway, Paul broke and was up 3-0. Alcaraz regained his serve, but could not break Paul until the American was serving for the set, and clearly nervous. A few inspired shots later and they were in a tiebreak, where Alcaraz barely got a first serve in and it was close, with mini breaks being overturned, until we got to the match point vs. set point situation. Alcaraz played the bigger points better, and now has three wins on Paul in a row. He’s also through to his first Olympics semi-final.
I then decided to watch the women’s individual all-round gymnastics final on the Beeb, which was quite a tester, as I was watching it and thus switching channels live. A different vibe to the men’s, as it was all about Biles’s comeback, really, and with only four pieces of apparatus, every score counted more. Two Americans, two Italians, Rebeca Andrade and Kaylia Neymar in the top group, with an eye on the hugely experienced Elsbeth Black, who would occasionally get into the top 3, 6 or 10, and the two Brits, Alice Kinsella and Georgia May Fenton. (I always feel sorry for people like the third placed American, who ought to have been there on merit, but only two gymnasts per country are allowed.)
The top group started on vault, and Simone Biles’s difficulty level was just ridiculous. Andrade, one of the medal contenders, and a gymnast’s gymnast did well, while Lee (the reigning champion after Biles’s famous withdrawal at Tokyo) had a disappointing landing. Alice D’Amato was also doing good, steady work, while Black had had a strong uneven bars routine. The Chinese gymnast who’d qualified seventh had some problems.
The top group moved to uneven bars, which is where it got particularly interesting. Biles was a little wild and had quite a big deduction, although she saved it from being worse. Manolo of Italy fell off, and would always be off the pace. Andrade had a good routine, which put her first, Lee had a good routine, which started making up for her vault, D’Amato also had a good routine, but the (French-)Algerian Neymar mostly pulled off the routine with the highest difficulty value of all gymnasts, male and female: 7.2. There was one bit she wasn’t happy with, but it was a staggering routine, and pulled her up into the top three.
Next for them, beam, which is always tricky although a lot of the top qualifiers had qualified for the beam final, and they were all good, although Neymar had to fight hard, while Biles did enough to regain her hopes for the gold. Black did a very striking floor routine.
But although it was highly probable that Biles would get gold and Andrade silver, the bronze and the final scores would be decided on the floor. D’Amato did a good job, but had an agonising wait to see whether it would be good enough for a medal. Neymar did a good job. She’s only 17 and has already improved on most of her apparatuses that aren’t the amazing uneven bars, hence getting herself into this elite company. Manolo had some ouchy landings, but did manage to complete the required front element she’d messed up in teams. She too is only 17 and perhaps not quite ready. There was a lot of talk as to whether the gymnasts were too tired or settling, having had enough time to be familiar with the apparatus and environment. I think it depended on the individual, with experience obviously helping the older ones.
Lee danced beautifully and tumbled powerfully, dislodging D’Amato. Andrade too, was excellent, and guaranteed herself silver or better. Last of all came Biles, and her tumbling is something else, even I could see the amazing height. A minor step out, but all the elements were covered off, and we waited for the confirmation that she’d done it, which she had, of course. A winning return for her, a deserved silver for Andrade and a satisfying bronze for Lee. Hard for D’Amato to be fourth, while Neymar was a promising fifth. At one point it looked as though Kinsella would have finished in the top 10, but her last rotation was on beam.
I returned to the tennis and saw that Djokovic had won against Tsitsipas in two sets, but might have done something to his knee. I then saw the end of the Murray-Evans vs Fritz-Paul match, and although the two Brits put up a fight right at the end, the Americans won in two sets, which much have been satisfying for Paul, even though it ended up being Murray’s last farewell. I learned that Evans had given up the chance to defend his win at Washington to play at the Olympics, which is a lot of points to lose. As for Murray, I think it’s going to be wrenching to give up tennis, but time and his body have run out.
Last of all came the women’s other semi-final, and there was commentary, so I learned that ‘surprise package’ Schmiedlova had only beaten a top 10 player once before this tournament, and that was at the Rio Olympics, so there must be something about playing for Slovakia and the multi-sport environment that lifts her game. Vekic has transferred the form she showed on grass to her weaker surface, having beaten Gauff on the way, although she had been playing late last night. Would that tell in any way? In her favour, her style is front-foot forward.
The first few games were cagey, but Vekic started hitting winners (such a mighty forehand) and Schmiedlova was broken. It took a real effort for her to avoid being broken twice, but she couldn’t get much of anywhere on Vekic’s service games, as the Croat had too much power and too much pace. Vekic won the first set, and was in total control in the second set. Apart from her big shots, she pulled off a few dropshots and Schmiedlova could not cope or find a way through. Indeed, she couldn’t win a game in the second set. They must have closed the roof during the match, which was a good job, because the rain hammered down in the last couple of games – there were lightning strikes over Paris, and by the end the rain was coming in through the ridges, but although you could barely hear the ball being struck, Vekic continued playing well to win, guaranteeing herself one of the top two medals. She was disbelieving and overwhelmed, but it’s such a good job and so nice after her hard loss at Wimbledon. She’ll be glad of a day off before facing Zheng, who has her own firepower.
Schmiedlova will have less time to regroup, although it depends on what kind of Swiatek she faces. It’ll be a very interesting bronze medal match mainly for what it tells us about Swiatek’s headspace.
I got caught up on all the results. Surprisingly, Musetti beat Zverev and will be having a rematch with a potentially injured Djokovic. More surprisingly, perhaps, Auger-Aliasseme beat Ruud – although the Canadian has also advanced in mixed doubles. Boulter and Watson lost to the Italians in the ladies’ doubles, more surprisingly, Kreijikova and Simiacova are out, but Simiacova and her boyfriend will be playing in the gold medal match against a Chinese pair who were alternates, so they got in because another team dropped out. I won’t go through them all, but it’s a mix of surprises and established teams.
Day seven: the first men’s singles semi-final, where Alcaraz faced Auger-Aliasseme with the comfort of knowing he’d won their last three encounters quite easily. He chose to receive and it was a closely contested first game, which showed that Auger-Aliasseme had to play close to his best to stave Alcaraz off, who then showed the difference in level by winning his serve easily. They were both focused, but Alcaraz was winning most points in a variety of different ways, Auger-Aliasseme was trying everything, and Alcaraz had the answer. There was none of the grumpiness of the previous match, and perhaps some of that was the mentality of knowing he had had the best of his opponent.
He won the first set, and looked to be at the same level in the second set, running most balls down, and playing some brilliant shots to set up an easy winner. So, he broke early, and absolutely dismantled the Canadian. The crowd were relatively quiet, because it was more of a rout than a match. Alcaraz looked delighted after it was called, as he should, having guaranteed himself a medal, and if he plays like that, it’ll be gold.
The women’s singles bronze medal match followed, and I suppose a couple of words applied to both players: ‘representing Slovakia’ and ‘representing Poland.’ We’d all seen how devastated Swiatek had been the day before, and Schmiedlova had been beaten quite late last night. But Swiatek started more like her usual self, which made her the favourite – Schmiedlova is only ranked no. 70. But then Schmiedlova broke quite early, and we wondered how fragile Swiatek’s seeming composure was.
But a break only counts if you hold your serve after, and Schmiedlova couldn’t, while Swiatek focused and from that point ran away with the set. Schmiedlova’s serve was an area of vulnerability, her first serve level wasn’t high enough and her second serve delivery not a problem. She did more than she had against Vekic, but as soon as Swiatek broke again, it was inevitable, and the match only lasted an hour. No big celebrations from Swiatek, but instead there were tears, probably from mixed emotions, but credit to her for regrouping enough and to her team from getting her in the right headspace.
I’d been updated that Peers and Ebden (proper doubles players) had beaten Paul and Fritz for the gold medal men’s doubles match, while Errani and Paolini had made it through to the gold medal match in the women’s doubles. Who would join them? I got to see the end of the semi-final, where the very young Andreeva and Shnaider needed about six match points to beat the Spanish team.
(Aargh, the athletics are starting! But there were no artistic gymnastics this day.)
I caught a glimpse of the bronze mixed doubles match (Canada would win, so after the low of the singles, Felix Auger-Aliasseme had quite a high.)
The build up for the last men’s singles semi-final was a reminder of how well Musetti has been playing lately – he’d come straight from a final on the tour to compete in the Olympics and not dropped a set. I was more aware of Djokovic’s run, and of course, the big question was the state of his knee. Would that and all the confidence he’d gained favour Musetti, who had pushed Djokovic more when they met at the French Open than he had at Wimbledon?
The first set produced excellent, entertaining tennis. Musetti tested Djokovic’s movement, as he should, but after some initial tentativeness, it seemed fine. Meanwhile Djokovic tested Musetti in return. Musetti took a couple of games to get a first serve in, so he did well to fend off Djokovic’s return. There were stylish shots (more from Musetti) and several break points, all of which got saved. The tension ramped up, and Djokovic was bouncing the ball five times before getting into his ful- on preparations, where he either bounced it a further nine or eleven times. The umpire finally gave a warning about that. (Even allowing for the crowd shouting out or lengthy rallies, Djokovic had been over the 25 seconds repeatedly.)
Serving at 4-5, Musetti got up to 40-0, but could not take one of his three game points, letting Djokovic back in, certainly with one misdirected response to a short ball. For me, it was about his mentality, and a drop shot error handed Djokovic the set. Musetti took it out on his racquet.
But the second set was a completely different beast, mystifyingly so. Djokovic was up, serving first, and instead of pressing on, he was making errors and having a whinge (it was never clear if it was about the wind or his team not giving him enough support or the right support). He got another time violation (which he never does even though he totally deserves it) and lost a serve. He then went to have a word with the umpire and got a warning for an audible obscenity (couldn’t hear it) and then had another word with the umpire about that. His head was out of it, and so he lost his serve.
This was Musetti’s chance on a silver platter, but he couldn’t take it. Whether he was still not over losing the first set or Djokovic’s dip in level was catching, we had a series of breaks, a bit of the crowd booing Djokovic, who was still chuntering at his team, but midway through the set, he held. Musetti would never hold serve all set. He wasn’t playing his best, neither was Djokovic, but the latter was better able to direct his churning emotions to make telling shots. He is, of course, more used to playing at a high level for high stakes, (but I don’t think Alcaraz or Sinner would have crumbled mentally in the same way, and that’s why, for all his talent, Musetti isn’t quite there yet, and may not be.) How high the stakes were were clear from his emotional response to winning. Djokovic has never won an Olympics semi-final for all the times he's been in one. He’s guaranteed himself (and Serbia) a silver or gold. (He was trying to play down his chances in the post-match interview, recognising Alcaraz is the man of the moment, but, yeah, like he isn’t going to want to win like fire the moment he steps back on Chatrier.) Well, it’s the final we all wanted.
The first tennis gold medal would be won in the mixed doubles, which I haven’t seen properly all tournament. On the one hand, the Czech team of Simiacova and Mahach had not dropped a set, having beaten the top seeds early. Simiacova already has an Olympics gold medal. For China, Wang and Zheng, the latter doing amazing things for Chinese men’s tennis, were an alternate team who only knew they’d be playing in the Olympics a few hours before the first round. They had gone to the champions tiebreak in every single match, and Mahach had already beaten Zheng in the singles.
The two teams were strikingly smiley when they stepped on the court, but it was serious business once play started. All four players kept their serve, and then, because of the Czech’s sharp netplay, they broke the Chinese man (ouch.) Breaking his partner too meant that they won the first set handily.
The Chinese team came back for the second set with more intensity and power, and kept their serves, plus won more exchanges. I dipped out of the middle of the second set, but it was on serve at the business end, and Simiacova was serving (with what looked like a sore arm) and got broken, meaning it was a set all and down to a champions tiebreak, which felt like it was playing into the Chinese team’s hands.
The tiebreak was a tense affair as everyone seemed to struggle to keep their serves – Zheng double faulting to give the Czech team a chance at the end, which they took. Delight for the Czech pair and their country, as tennis is one of Czechia’s better chances for a medal. I watched the medal ceremony (with Felix A-A turning up for a late night given that he has another bronze medal match tomorrow, but he won’t mind staying up to get an Olympic medal.) Simiacova was in tears as her anthem rang out.