| Venus and Yevgeny Take Singles Gold | |
Venus Williams has a pretty good winning streak going in singles: 32 in a row, including Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and now the Olympic gold medal. She defeated Elena Dementieva 6-2, 6-4 in the final. Dementieva is a fast-rising Russian star in women's tennis, a tall, powerful, and quick 18-year-old, but she was completely overpowered by Williams. Both Williams and Dementieva had been tested in their semifinals. Venus got by Monica Seles 6-1, 4-6, 6-3, while Elena worked a little harder to advance against Australian Jelena Dokic 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Venus followed up by winning the gold medal in doubles with her sister Serena. Venus and Serena simply crushed the Dutch team, Kristie Boogert and Miriam Oremans, 6-1, 6-1. The match took just 50 minutes. Venus became only the second woman in Olympic history to win both the singles and the doubles gold. Helen Wills was the first, in 1924.
The bronze singles medal went to Seles, who defeated Dokic 6-1, 6-4. Belgians Els Callens and Dominique Van Roost took the doubles bronze over Olga Barabanshchikova and Natasha Zvereva of Belarus 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov took the men's singles gold medal by grinding out a 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win over Germany's Tommy Haas. The men's draw was significantly depleted before the tournament began, with the absences of Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, and several other top players, but that did not diminish Kafelnikov's enjoyment of his first title of 2000. He threw his racquet into the stands, then waved a Russian flag to the cheering crowd. In the bronze medal match, Arnaud Di Pasquale of France defeated Switzerland's Roger Federer 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (9-7), 6-3.
The men's doubles final saw a major upset, as Canadians Sebastien Lareau and Daniel Nestor took gold over the Australian top seeds, Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (2). This was the last match "The Woodies," one of the greatest doubles teams of all time, had planned to play together. Alex Corretja and Albert Costa of Spain captured the bronze, defeating David Adams and John-Laffnie De Jager of South Africa 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Did you get to see any of the Olympic tennis? Sophiedee, of our forum, asks, "Could NBC have buried their Olympic tennis coverage any deeper?" What did you think of NBC's coverage?
