People gathered in bars and restaurants across Puerto Rico to watch the match, pouring into the streets and waving flags the second Puig sealed the win.
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“I did hear everybody saying, ‘Yes, you can!”
In the aftermath of her victory, she struggled with the words of the Puerto Rico national anthem, admitting that her father Jose had emailed her the lyrics in the morning.
Puig’s parents, Jose and Astrid, were unable to watch their daughter’s historic win because they did not have enough time to obtain visas to travel to Brazil.
On Friday, after beating two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in the semi-finals, Puig had vowed to win gold and bring some light relief to Puerto Rico.
Puig has made history by not only winning Puerto Rico’s first gold medal ever, but also by being the first woman to win a medal representing Puerto Rico, whose male athletes have captured eight medals at past games, mostly in boxing.
“I always had faith I could achieve something like this, and now I have the confidence having known I did it”, Puig said.
“I knew from the first moment the match started getting intense that I needed to give my all and I stayed there and I stayed focused and I did exactly what I needed to do”, Puig said. 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. When she finished a tense closing game – saving six break points and converting her fourth match point – she flung away her racket and went over to collect a flag she paraded across the court.
Puig, who entered the Rio Games ranked just 34th in the world, defied all odds by winning 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 during Day 8 of the Summer Olympics. “It was such an unbelievable moment”.
Del Potro, who earned a bronze for Argentina four years ago, will add a silver or gold to that after advancing to the Rio de Janeiro Games final by coming back to stun the third-seeded Nadal 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (5) on Saturday.
“Today, without doubt, my Puerto Rico is the happiest island in the world”.
“I’m a pretty aggressive player”.
Puig had shown promise in the past, reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon as a teen in 2013, but she hasn’t been that far again at any major.
Murray won gold in London in 2012 and would be the first tennis player ever to retain the Olympic title should he win on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Kvitova won the bronze medal play-off by defeating American seventh seed Madison Keys 7-5, 2-6, 6-2.
And she played attacking tennis full of powerful shots that seemed to rattle the counter-punching Kerber.
Puig smacked a down-the-line backhand – her 18th victor to that point, 10 more than Kerber – for a break that gave her the opening set. She came here with no pressure, had nothing to lose.
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During the ensuing changeover, Kerber was visited by a trainer, standing on the sideline while her lower back was massaged and manipulated, before heading to the locker room for a medical timeout.
