Paris 2024: Lorenzo Musetti overcomes Felix Auger-Aliassime to bag bronze, Matthew Ebden and John Peers win doubles gold
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ByOli Gent
Published 03/08/2024 at 22:23 GMT+1
Lorenzo Musetti put his Wimbledon and Olympic semi-final disappointments behind him as he beat Felix Auger-Aliassime in three sets to win the bronze medal for Italy at Paris 2024. The Italian was beaten for the second time in as many tournament semi-finals by Novak Djokovic, but he responded superbly with a 6-4 1-6 6-3 victory over the Canadian 13th seed on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Watch emotional scenes as Djokovic celebrates finally making an Olympic final
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Lorenzo Musetti won the bronze medal in the men’s singles at Paris 2024 as he beat Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime in three sets at Roland-Garros.
The Italian, who was beaten by Novak Djokovic for the second time in as many tournaments at the semi-final stage, overcame Auger-Aliassime, the 13th seed, 6-4 1-6 6-3 on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Auger-Aliassime came into the match off the back of a mammoth Friday when he played his singles semi-final against Carlos Alcaraz before winning a bronze medal in the mixed doubles.
The Canadian’s exploits appeared to have finally caught up with him under the lights in the French capital.
Musetti, the Italian 11th seed, was fastest out the blocks, breaking his opponent in a marathon opening game before holding his own to move into a 2-0 lead.
Auger-Aliassime appeared determined not to let the bronze medal match slip away from him after his 6-1 6-1 defeat to Alcaraz in the last four, though, and used his serve to secure a foothold in the match.
Each continued to hold impressively, but not without some outrageous play: a rally in the fourth game leaving the crowd gasping and Musetti successfully playing a tweener from the back of the court.
After only dropping four points on his service game, Musetti found himself on the receiving end of a break in the eighth game, but the 20-year-old instantly broke back, serving to take the first set.
The momentum shifted between sets, with Auger-Aliassime breaking the Wimbledon semi-finalist to race into a 3-0 lead. But Musetti rallied to hold his next serve, overcoming a break point to halt the Canadian’s charge.
A solid hold from Auger-Aliassime followed before Musetti’s serve was under the microscope again. Mistakes were creeping into the Italian’s game, and the world No. 19 was making the most of them, taking a break point at the first time of asking before dispatching his next service game to wrap up the second set 6-1.
Entering the deciding set, Musetti appeared to have regained some of his early match composure, holding his serve and moving with zip. But Auger-Aliassime wasn’t giving anything away, using his power and pinpoint shot placement to stay in contention for a second bronze medal in two days.
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Watch moment emotional Djokovic reaches first Olympic final with win over Musetti
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The Canadian fended off two break points at 2-1 in the third to keep the scores even, but he was finally breached in what would become the match’s penultimate game as Musetti went up 5-3, breaking with relative ease to 15.
He served it out confidently, converting his first match point to bag the bronze.
Australia’s Ebden and Peers take gold in doubles, Team USA complete podium
The men’s doubles gold medal match kicked off the action at Roland-Garros, and it was almost impossible to separate Australia’s Matthew Ebden and John Peers, and Team USA’s Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram - the latter pair Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal’s conquerors - with both pairs winning a tie-break each to take it to the third set tie-break decider.
In an engaging 17 minutes of play, the Australians finally came out on top, winning 6(6)-7 7-6(1) 10-8 to become Olympic champions.
It was a much more clear-cut contest in the bronze medal match: Team USA’s Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul, who beat Andy Murray and Dan Evans, dispatched Czechia’s Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek 6-3 6-4 in just over an hour.
discovery+ is the streaming home of the Olympic Games, and the only place you can watch every moment of Paris 2024 this summer.
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