Amelie Brooks - tennis — WE ARE GIRLS IN SPORT

Amelie is a fantastic British tennis player and is reporting on the tennis for us. You can read more about how she started tennis by reading her guest blog here.

Now for Amelie’s Olympic report:

The much anticipated Olympic tennis competition began a day after the visually stunning opening ceremony on 24th July. Despite a number of leading players deciding not to travel to Tokyo, the first two days of matches produced many amazing matches, interesting results and a couple of upsets that were great for the contest.

Of the top 10 seeds in the women’s singles draw 1) A. Barty, 2) N. Osaka, 3) A. Sabalenka, 4) E. Svitolina, 5) K. Pliskova, 6) I. Swiatek, 7) G. Muguruza, 8) B. Krejcikova, 9) B. Bencic and 10) P. Kvitova, only nine won their first round match.. the biggest shock saw Spanish hopeful, Sara Soribbes Tormo defeat the current world number 1, Ashleigh Barty in straight sets 6-4 6-3. This was undoubtedly Soribbes Tormo’s biggest win in her career and set the tone for a wide open contest.

There were other highlights for tennis within the first few days. Japan’s Naomi Osaka became the first ever tennis player to light the Olympic Cauldron and she seemed to cope with the pressure of being in the global spotlight very well. Dutch player, Kiki Bertens announced her retirement from tennis after losing her first round match to the eventual finalist, Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic. Kiki carried on in the doubles with her partner Demi Schurrs before being knocked out.

Day 3 was fascinating as nearly all the top seeds lost! Aryna Sabalenka, the huge hitting 3rd seed from Belarus was defeated by Donna Vekic from Croatia. Petra Kvitova, the stylish lefty 10th seed from the Czech Republic was defeated by unfancied Alison Van Uytvanck from Belgium and the exciting Iga Swiatek from Poland was knocked out by Spain’s Paula Badosa. Spain did very well in both the singles and doubles - with both pairs through to the round of 16 in the doubles and 3 players through to round of 16 in the singles.

Day 4 saw the second biggest upset in the singles with Marketa Vondrousova defeating the second seed and Japan’s favourite sportswoman, Naomi Osaka in straight sets! Italy’s power hitter, Camila Giorgi surprisingly beat Karolina Pliskova the fifth seed from the Czech Republic.

On Day 5, eight players were left to battle it out in the quarterfinals. The conditions in Tokyo were brutal for all the players as the heat and humidity took its toll. Unfortunately, Paula Badosa had to retire after the first set in her match against Marketa Vondrousova due to heatstroke and feeling unfit to continue the match.

Image credit: Elena Rybakina /@j48tennis.net

The final four saw the hot tip from Ukraine, Elina Svitolina drawn against Vondrousova and Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic up against the talented big hitting youngster, Elena Rybakina. So much at stake for all 4 players to reach their first ever final at an Olympics!

In the doubles semi finals, the exciting Czech Republic pair Katerina Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova triumphed over the Russian Olympic Committee pair Elena Vesnina and Veronika Kudermetova and Swiss pair Belinda Bencic and Viktorija Golubic beat the Brazilian pair Laura Pigossi and Luisa Stefani.

The matches for the bronze medal were very exciting and in no way reflected the third place position with all players going flat out for the win. First up was Svitolina vs Rybakina for the bronze medal which Svitolina won in 3 sets after losing the first set 6-1. A worthy medal for a great player. The Brazilian pair won the bronze medal in the doubles which was Brazil’s first ever Olympic medal in tennis.

The gold medal singles match was between two unlikely contenders. Bencic and Vondrousova went head to head for Olympic glory. It was a really tough 3 set battle as both players tried to impose themselves on the other. Lots of breaks of serve and quite a few nerves were on show from both. Eventually after over 2 hours, Belinda Bencic won the gold medal for Switzerland 7-5 2-6 6-3 on her Olympic debut! What an amazing achievement!

The final day for tennis at the Olympics included the doubles gold medal match and the world’s best and French Open champions Czech pair Krejcikova and Siniakova took the win over Swiss pair Golubic and Bencic in straight sets 7-5 6-1.

A really great level of tennis in both the women’s events! The unexpected singles results, both the finalists and the gold medal winner perfectly typifies the strength in depth in women’s tennis.It’s almost impossible to predict the winners from tournament to tournament but the level of skill and athleticism in women’s tennis is truly inspirational. Only three years until Paris. Who knows who will put the next gold medal around their neck.