Here, she returns a shot against Angelique Kerber of Germany during their women’s singles gold medal match in Rio de Janeiro Saturday.
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The title charge was a surprise for a player ranked at 34 in the world and who came into Rio on the back of a couple of first round losses, at Wimbledon and Montreal where she was even defeated by a qualifier.
The 22-year-old unseeded Puig also upset 14th-seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-2 in the second round of this hard-court event, here at the Olympic Tennis Centre.
Kerber moved to 0-40 before Puig rallied and forced a couple of match points only for Kerber to save them and force three more break points in an epic seventh match of the third set. Puig is deeply aware of what her triumphs mean.
“I knew, actually, that she’s a great player”, the German said. “For me it’s about trying to win more medals for the country and the team”.
The match took a swift change in direction with the Puerto Rican taking the first set 6-4.
As well as the gold medal match between Puig and Kerber, Kvitova and Keys will do battle for bronze, while the women’s doubles third-place match will be an all-Czech affair, as Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova take on Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka. After finally securing the victory, she flung her racket sky high in celebration as relief and elation simultaneously graced her face. “I never imagined in my wildest dreams that this would happen”, she added regarding her remarkable run towards the gold. “And the way I did this victory tonight, I wouldn’t want it any other way”. “I know how happy everybody gets”. But after watching Puig’s historic win on television from her CT home on Saturday, Fernandez said her only regret was not being in Rio de Janeiro to watch it live. Puerto Rico, a territory of the US, has been sending athletes to the Summer Games since 1948 and has won medals before, but never gold and never by a woman.
She is also the first Puerto Rican woman to medal at an Olympics.
She reached Saturday s final by beating two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 in a rollercoaster match which featured 10 breaks of serve. It was unthinkable that she could win the title, let alone medal, but after she routed No. 4-seeded Garbine Muguruza to reach the quarterfinals, the belief only grew.
“It was a very tough match and I just managed to turn it around in the end”, Murray told reporters.
Kerber was gunning for the gold, but she’ll take the silver. Just putting myself in this position for my first Olympics is so big. Puerto Rico has been going through a massive debt crisis, and many people have been suffering in her homeland.
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Nadal had planned an assault on three golds in Rio but his gruelling schedule finally caught up with him and he chose to scratch from the mixed doubles with Garbine Muguruza.
