Russian women claim tennis doubles gold at Rio Games
Irina Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova have brought Russia Olympic gold in the women’s doubles tennis event, beating Martina Hingis and Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland in the final match in Rio.
The Russian pair cruised to victory in two sets, which they took with the same score of 6-4.
It’s the seventh gold medal bagged by the Russian national team at the Rio Olympics so far.
The captain of the Russian women’s tennis team and former world No.2, Anastasia Myskina, said that the success of Makarova and Vesnina came as no surprise to her.
“We’re very happy. The girls did what we were trying to achieve for a long time. Frankly speaking, we were expecting gold in the doubles,” Myskina told TASS.
The fate of the bronze in the women’s doubles event was decided in an all-Czech encounter on Saturday, when Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova beat their compatriots Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in straight sets, 7-5, 6-1.
