Félix Auger-Aliassime and Gaby Dabrowski have claimed a historic Olympic bronze medal for Canada at Roland-Garros.
The Canadians won in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6 (2) over Wesley Koolhof and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands in Friday’s bronze medal match. It’s Canada’s first ever Olympic medal in mixed doubles, and just the nation’s second tennis medal overall. Daniel Nestor and Sébastien Lareau won gold in men’s doubles at Sydney 2000.
Auger-Aliassime and Dabrowski gained an early advantage in the first set, breaking Schuurs’ serve to go up 3-1. The Dutch team tried doggedly to break back in the seventh game, but Dabrowski held serve to put Canada up 5-2.
Despite playing in his second match of the day, Auger-Aliassime showed no signs of fatigue or distress. He opened the ninth game of the first set with a powerful ace, and finished it off by forcing Koolhof into an error. Canada won the set 6-3.
They picked up where they left off in the second set, immediately breaking Koolhof’s serve to go up 1-0. The Canadians then broke Schuurs again to go up 3-0, and their victory began to appear inevitable.
But the Dutch pair had other plans, breaking Dabrowski’s serve twice and levelling the second set at 4-4.
Two games later, another thunderous ace from Auger-Aliassime moved the score to 5-5. Dabrowski closed out the 12th game with an ace of her own, sending the second set to a tiebreak.
The Canadians started it off with a minibreak of Koolhof to go up 1-0 and then held on Auger-Aliassime’s serve to make it 3-0 in the tiebreak. But the Dutch cut it to 3-2 on a missed backhand passing shot by Auger-Aliassime. That was a close they got, however. The Canadians held on Dabrowski’s serve to go up 5-2 while the Dutch continued to make unforced errors, setting up four match points. Dabrowski and Auger-Aliassime put ther match away on their first attempt when Schuurs hit the ball well out on a forehand volley.
Earlier on Day 7, Auger-Aliassime fell in straight sets (1-6, 1-6) to Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s singles semifinal. But he will get the chance to go for a second bronze medal of these Games on Saturday.
This is the second Games in which Auger-Aliassime and Dabrowski have competed in the mixed doubles event. They went out in the Round of 16 at Tokyo 2020. Dabrowski also competed in women’s doubles at Rio 2016 (with Eugenie Bouchard) and Tokyo 2020 (with Sharon Fichman).
