Prior to Puig’s win, Puerto Rico’s most high-profile Olympic victory belonged to the men’s basketball team, which crushed a US men’s hoops team filled with NBA stars, 92-73, at the 2004 Olympic opener in Athens.
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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. She immediately flung her racket and went to collect the flag that she would parade across the court.
Kerber had cruised into the final without dropping a set as the second seed aimed to emulate Steffi Graf who was Germany’s last champion at the 1988.
Puig grew up in Miami and trains in Boca Raton but chose to represent the island where she was born at the Olympics. Now, she’s the first person ever to win gold for the island.
Puig added she had not yet checked her phone, but is expecting a flood of calls, emails, tweets and congratulations over social media from her fellow Puerto Ricans.
It was a tense closing game for Puig.
It was an enticing match that displayed ruthless, persistent and heavy striking of the ball opposed to the tireless, defensive play of Angelique Kerber.
“This medal gives me a lot of confidence about what I can do”. She claimed the biggest victory of her career following a game of six deuces as she watched a Kerber backhand miss the court.
“It’s still a special feeling”. With every match, I continued to learn and continued to grow. Puig had not beaten a top-10 player all year and only once in her career.
Automobiles clogged Ashford avenue, one of the busiest streets in San Juan, honking their horns in an explosion of joy over the island’s first Olympic gold medal.
At Rio 2016, Puig became the first Puerto Rican woman in history, and the third Puerto Rican overall to compete for a gold medal at an individual sport. Both took home silver. “I have that “Boricua” fire in me”, Puig added, using a common term for Puerto Rico and the country’s inhabitants.
“To feel what I feel with Serena, (but) with someone else, is a wild emotion and I never thought it would happen”.
Start me up: Maddon said Trevor Cahill will start Game 1 of Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Brewers. “So the emotion is nearly even bigger because you don’t know what to expect”.
Kvitova’s compatriots, Lucia Safarova and Barbora Strycova, also collected bronze in the women’s doubles, beating the other Czech entrants and sixth seeds, Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka, 7-5, 6-1.
The world number 141 Del Potro, whose career was nearly ended by a series of wrist operations, triumphed after three hours and eight minutes of compelling centre court action. The excitement over the new Olympic champion has been taking the world by storm and encourages more athletes to strive for gold. It’s just incredible, I still can’t believe that we won the gold.
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“I didn’t expect to get to the final; I didn’t expect to beat Djokovic”.
