The underdog fought back from a break down in the second set to draw level at 4-4, but Kerber, victor of the 2016 Australian Open and a Wimbledon finallist last month, broke again before edging a tense final game in which Puig saved four set points.
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FENCING: U.S. fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad, of Maplewood, came to the Rio Games determined to show the world that sports is a place where Muslim-American women can excel.
She could. And she did.
To a soundtrack of “Si se puede!” from the stands, Monica Puig won Puerto Rico’s first gold medal in any sport in Olympic history, upsetting Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 in the women’s tennis singles final Saturday at the Rio de Janeiro Games. “My dad sent me an email this morning with all the lyrics, I didn’t really have enough time to memorise it all but I heard some people singing and I knew the words that were coming next”. I started believing in myself even more.
“I never imagined in my wildest dreams that this would happen”, Puig added – and she said her experience in Rio de Janeiro has been like a dream.
“I know my country really wanted this victory”, she added.
She broke down in tears on the podium.
“I didn’t lose”, said Kerber. “But I couldn’t. I was choking up the whole time”.
In an nearly unbearable climax, she saved six break points and had four match points before forcing her illustrious rival to shove a closing forehand into the tramlines, and turned in a state of disbelief to accept the acclaim of her fans. “It was such an unbelievable moment”. She had to save six break points and only on her fourth match point did she convert. She is also the first unseeded woman to win the Olympic singles gold.
And Gigi Fernandez, a Puerto Rican-born tennis player who won Olympic gold in doubles in 1992 and 1996, representing the USA, predicted a “heroes’ welcome” for Puig.
Murray will look to claim gold for Britain in tomorrow’s final but faces a tough test against Del Potro who eliminated world number one Novak Djokovic in the first round.
Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro ended Rafael Nadal’s hopes of a second Olympic singles title Saturday with an epic 5-7, 6-4, 7-6, (7/5) win to set up a gold medal showdown with defending champion Andy Murray. No tennis player has won two Olympic singles golds, let alone two in a row. “I am having the best year of my career”.
“It means something very, very big in my career”. Forty-five percent of the population of the U.S. island territory is classified as poor, and U.S. President Barack Obama in June signed bipartisan legislation to create a financial control board of the kind that has historically deepened the immiseration of the commonwelth to repay creditors in full.
The Puerto Rican then earned a Gold Medal point against serve, but Kerber would save it, and then hold to force the world No.34 to serve it out. “Hopefully I can run like I did today”.
She is not the first Puerto Rican woman to win a medal.
“If I was destined to win a medal, it would have been in doubles and Puerto Rico did not have another player that I could have played with”, she said.
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“It’s obviously not an easy thing to do”.
