Australia captured the gold medal in a teeming tiebreak tussle of a men’s doubles final on Saturday, after John Peers and Matt Ebden defeated Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek of the U.S., 6-7(6), 7-6(1), 10-8.

MATCH STATS

Both teams had a paper-perfect match record at the Paris Games thus far, neither dropping a set en route to the final. But when Saturday came, it was finally time for one of the teams to relinquish.

That first team to lose a set was the Australian team. Ebden and Peers pushed the Americans into a tiebreak in the first set, but couldn’t overpower the United States, and the Americans took the set, 8-6.

While the Aussies were down in the second set, they weren’t out. At 2-4, they managed to break the Americans in a critical moment, tying the score at 4-all. Once again, the Americans fired back, bringing the game to 6-all, and another tiebreak. 

The Australians quickly asserted themselves, leading the tiebreak 5-0, and Peers closed out the tiebreak on serve. 

The gold medal would be a first for either team, and the tiebreak was a thrilling display of doubles acumen. The Australian team, riding high on their second set win, took the lead early. The Americans weren’t quick to relent, and on the fourth match point, Peers, who’s consistency waned at the net, managed to slam a volley deep that Krajicek couldn’t touch, and with that Australia captured the gold medal in tennis for the first time in 28 years.

“It’s amazing to have the family and friends in the crowd,” Peers said during his on-court interview. “Matt and I were just saying this is something we hoped for a few months ago, and now we’re here. We’re gold medalists.”

“We’ll be talking about this with each other ‘til we’re 100 years old,” Ebden added. 

The last gold medal in men's doubles came in 1996, when Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde took the title in Atlanta. At 36 years and 251 days, Ebden is officially the oldest gold medalist in tennis since the sport returned to the Olympic in 1988.

The U.S. men's Olympic tennis tournament finished on a highly-decorated note on Saturday, when doubles pair Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz took home the bronze medal after defeating Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek of Czechia, 6-3, 6-2. 

MATCH STATS l MEN'S DOUBLES BRACKET

From L to R: Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram (USA), Matt Ebden and John Peers (AUS), and Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul (USA).

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