Benneteau/Gasquet trounce Ferrer/Lopez to win bronze medal – London Olympics 2012
French tandem, Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet, got the better of the Spanish duo, David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez, in straight sets at the London Olympics 2012 on Saturday. They nudged up a 7-6(4), 6-2 victory against the Spaniards to bag the bronze
medal in the doubles event at Games of x*x Olympiad held in Wimbledon.
The ultra-fit French junction prevailed after a series of serve breaks, eventually carving out the victory in their first match-up. After ruling the match in 79 minutes, Benneteau and Gasquet captured the bronze medal at this major sports event held after
every four years.
Benneteau stated after achieving this success:
"It means a lot. I just said to Richard that, at the moment, I don't believe it. We have the medal; we have it for life, so it's something special. For me this is a very huge thing to have [won] an Olympic medal. It's amazing. For France, it is a good day
today."
Gasquet commented further, "It's incredible. We have the medal for all of our life. It's crazy for us. We did it so it's incredible, but we don't believe it now."
Benneteau and Gasquet high-spiritedly entered the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet club. They drew the first blood in the opening game and took the initial lead. Despite failing to keep their single serve, the French pair broke their opponents’ entire
serves, eventually pro-longing the set to a tie-breaker. They jumped to a 5-2 lead in it before clinching the opener with a 7-6(4) score line.
The French junction carried their winning ways in the following set. They broke their opponents serve three times and leaped to a 5-1 lead. Apart from failing to serve out the set with a breadstick, Benneteau and Gasquet broke the Spaniards’ serve once again,
subsequently sealing the set by winning six games to two.
The Spaniards fought back hard but were ultimately underplayed by Benneteau and Gasquet.
"They played better," said the disappointed Ferrer. "It was a big week, but finally we don't have a medal so it's a difficult moment."
Ferrer and Lopez swayed from the winning track after losing the tie-breaker, eventually exiting from Olympics without clinching any medal.
Benneteau and Gasquet set up this clash after bowing out to the top seeded American brothers, Bob and Mike, in the semi-finals. They suffered a 4-6, 4-6 shock against the American twins. The Spanish collaboration on the other end was edged out by the second
seeded French team, Michael Llodra and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
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