Mektic and Pavic Claim Gold in All Croatian Olympic Men’s Doubles Final

July 31, 2021 c_admin Tennis News Comments Off on Mektic and Pavic Claim Gold in All Croatian Olympic Men’s Doubles Final

By Erik Gudris | Friday, July 30, 2021

Croatia secured the gold medal in men’s doubles as Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic defeated countrymen Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig in the gold medal match.

Top seeds Mektic and Pavic earned the 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 victory over Cilic and Dodig in one hour, 36 minutes.

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“We are super happy to win the title and super happy to be at the Olympics for the first time,” Mektic said later. “To have such a great result is really more than a dream come true.

“We are delighted, and, me personally, I’m very happy to share this moment with Mate. We’re very good friends and everything is much nicer to share with a guy like him.”

“We are extremely proud to hold this medal,” Cilic said on his team winning the silver medal. “This is something that was missing in our trophy cabinet. Me and Ivan know each other from our early days, since we started tennis, so even to be here at the pinnacle of the sport, to play in a gold medal match at the Olympics, is a dream come true.”

It’s the third gold medal for Croatia in this Olympics after the country took home gold earlier in Taekwondo and Rowing earlier. This is also Croatia’s fourth and fifth tennis medals since the sport was brought back to the Summer Games in 1988, and the first since Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic won bronze in doubles at Athens in 2004

In the bronze medal match, New Zealand’s Marcus Daniell and Michael Venus captured bronze after defeating the USA team of Austin Krajicek and Tennys Sandgren 7-6(3) 6-2

With Krajicek and Sandgren’s loss, this is the first time the USA has not won a tennis medal in 101 years.

Photo credit: International Tennis Federation