“It’s the most special feeling when you put on your colors of your country and you’re walking around the Olympic Village and everybody looks to see your country on the back of your shirt”. Long and behold, Puig’s resilience was rewarded nearly immediately with a break back, as Kvitova had lost the rhythm she had enjoyed in the first three games, as unforced errors-by the bunches-began to creep into her game.
Advertisement
For now, Puerto Ricans have Puig to root for the next couple days as she attempts to do something nobody representing it has ever done before. Taking full advantage, the unseeded Puerto Rican showed no signs of slowing down, backing up the break with an impressive hold at love to restore parity at 3-all. That break was quickly consolidated and the American could not survive on her next service game, which saw the scores hit deuce four times, netting to hand Kvitova a 3-0 lead.
Puig is a smoother mover than the six-foot Czech and began stretching the points testing Kvitova’s lateral movement roaring back to level at 3-all. She ultimately won that set in a decisive fashion, 6-2.
Thankfully for the Czech, it was far from it.
However, she won’t just settle for that at this stage, as she has the chance to write her name into the history books and become the first athlete from Puerto Rico to win a goal medal in any sport at the Olympic Games.
While Kerber got the better of Madison Keys on Friday, Puig continued her memorable run with a gruelling win over Petra Kvitova.
“She’s really found her game”, Keys said. Perhaps crucially on a psychological level, though, both have gone the German’s way. During the break, Puig walked out on court and practiced serves. She was just 2-of-10 against the left-handed hook serves of Kvitova.
The Czech managed to save the first with a fearless smash that landed just inside the baseline, but the second was a different story.
Defending champion Murray clinched a 6-0, 4-6, 7-6 (7/2) win over Steve Johnson of the United States and goes on to face either Japanese fourth seed Kei Nishikori or France’s Gael Monfils for a place in the gold medal match.
Advertisement
Rock Island’s Madison Keys is headed to the semifinals in women’s singles tennis Friday as the only American remaining in the event.
