Paolini, Errani, Auger-Aliassime, Ram, Kostyuk and more: Olympic heroes, sung and unsung

If you watched the women’s doubles semifinals of the Olympic Games on Friday, you saw an ecstatic Sara Errani of Italy drop to the red-clay court in disbelief when she and Jasmine Pasolini won match point against Czechia’s Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova.

To borrow a familiar analogy, it looked like Errani had just won Wimbledon. Of course, the Olympic tennis was played at Roland Garros, but you get the point. When Paolini hauled Errani to her feet for a lengthy hug and tearful celebration, it was easy to forget that the pair had not actually won the tournament yet. But they qualified for the final, and went on to take gold.

This kind of enthusiasm, determination and unbridled joy, fueled by patriotism, is what makes the Olympics—for all its flaws (awkward timing, questionable qualification procedures, a compressed schedule, tactical withdrawals)—a top priority for the vast majority of the players, and a fascinating spectacle for the rest of us.

The pressure of Olympics tennis is unique. It helps level the playing field for the have-nots, and it plays an outsized role in some surprising results. So let’s pay tribute to some of the past week’s pop-up heroes—like those diminutive Italians, Errani and Paolini, who experienced their golden moment in the Parisian sunshine.

Novak Djokovic ticked the final box on a champion’s wish list by winning the men’s singles gold medal. It was a career-defining win over his heir apparent, Carlos Alcaraz. Djokovic withstood enormous pressure, recent injury and age (37) to produce a nearly perfect win that also earned him a career Golden Slam. He said afterward, “Arguably [it’s] the biggest win I ever had.”

Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz did yeoman work for a disappointing U.S. team: Fritz played 10 matches in three disciplines over the course of eight days; Paul competed in nine matches over seven days, in singles and doubles.

Paul looked sharp enough to medal in singles, but the quarterfinals placed him opposite Alcaraz, who just a few weeks earlier won Roland Garros on the same court. It eased the pain some when he and Fritz scored the bronze medal in doubles.

Zheng Qinwen demonstrated that revenge is a dish best served cold in becoming the first Chinese player to win a singles gold medal. Her journey included a stunning win over four-time Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek (Zheng was 0-6 against the world No. 1), as well as a recovery from match point down against Emma Navarro, who later made some jaw-dropping public criticisms of Zheng.

Felix Auger-Aliassime became the first Canadian to reach the medal round in singles, and he also pocketed his nation’s first tennis medal since a doubles bronze in 2000. FAA and Gabriela Dabrowski took the mixed doubles bronze.

Auger-Aliassime’s accomplishments in Paris are even more resonant given that he was ranked outside the Top 35 as recently as March, and because clay is not his surface of choice.

The path to the mixed doubles title ran through No. 3 seeds Fritz and Coco Gauff. She said of FAA’s performance, “Even on match point I think [Felix] hit a really good shot that I don’t think he could probably hit again, considering the pressure of that moment.”

Donna Vekic of Croatia has been having an extended veteran moment. Did anyone at the outset pencil her in as the singles finalist? The 28-year-old, a first-time semifinalist at Wimbledon recently, stepped up in Paris to earn the silver in singles. In the third round, eliminated No. 2 seed Gauff.

Andy Murray (yoked in doubles with Dan Evans) did not go gently into the twilight of retirement. He was dragged kicking and screaming, by Fritz and Paul. The Brits stared down seven match points in two previous rounds, and fought to the bitter end against long odds in Murray’s heroic, career-ending event.

“Obviously we want to win,” said Fritz after he and Paul ousted the Brits, 6-2, 6-4. “We were pumped up to win. But it is sad to see it end for Andy. He’s someone that I think both of us have looked up to for a very long time. He’s a great guy. So I guess I don’t take a lot of pride in doing it.

“But we’re here to try and win a medal.”

Anna Karolina Schmiedlova was the hard-luck story of this Olympics. The Slovak did not win a medal, but she punched well above her weight class in singles. Who can forget how, hunched over in utter exhaustion, she was unable even to celebrate her epic third-round win over Roland Garros and Wimbledon runner-up Paolini?

Schmiedlova backed that up with a win over Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova before running out of steam in the semis, losing to Vekic 6-4, 6-0. She didn’t have enough left in the tank to challenge No. 1 Swiatek in the bronze-medal match, losing 2 and 1.

Rajeev Ram, partnered with Austin Krajicek,intimately knows the heartbreak as well as the joy of Olympic competition. A silver medalist in the mixed in 2016, the 40-year-old doubles master had one last shot at Olympic gold.

In the quarterfinals, the Americans upset the wildly popular ‘Nadalcaraz’—the Spanish team composed of Rafael Nadal and Alcaraz.

“We were able to use our doubles experience,” Ram said, of how the squad kept its cool against two multi-time (and in Rafa’s case, 14-time) Roland Garros champions. “We’ve both been in Grand Slam finals before. Austin’s been in two here on this court. It’s not 14, but it’s still something for sure.”

The team led Aussies Matthew Ebden and John Peers by a set and 4-2 in the gold-medal match but lost.

Marta Kostyuk, now the highest-ranking Ukrainian at No. 20, acquitted herself well by reaching the quarterfinals via an upset of the No. 7 seed, Greece’s Maria Sakkari. This was an emotionally taxing tournament for the Ukrainians because of Russia’s ongoing onslaught against their nation.

Kostyuk went one round further than compatriot Elina Svitolina. Meanwhile, the largely unknown Ukrainian sisters Lyudmyla and Nadiia Kichenok played inspired tennis, falling just one win short of the medal round.

Sara Errani’s lifelong dreams of Olympic glory had been frustrated—until a chance conversation led to a serendipitous connection with countrywoman Paolini. Now the women are gold medalists, and 37-year old Errani’s deferred dreams are realized.

“For me, the Olympics have always been the ultimate, and winning it would be worth more than the Slam tournaments I won (as a doubles player),” Errani, who now owns a career Golden Slam, told Sportal.Eu after the semifinals. “I tried for so many years, then I found Jasmine and infected her with my Olympic… enthusiasm.”