The women’s singles gold medal match headlines Saturday’s schedule, featuring two surprising finalists. Prior to this event, both Belinda Bencic and Marketa Vondrousova had almost as many losses on the year as wins, and no titles between them. But on Saturday, they will compete for the biggest win of their careers.
Day 8 at the Ariake Tennis Park also includes four bronze medal matches. For the fourth day in a row, Novak Djokvoic will play twice. In men’s singles, he faces Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta. In mixed doubles, the men’s singles No.1 will be across the court from the women’s singles No.1, Ash Barty. And the bronze medalists will also be decided in women’s singles and doubles. Bronze medal matches at the Olympic Games often provide some of the most emotional moments of the year, as the losers leave Tokyo with no hardware whatsoever.
Saturday’s play gets underway at 3:00pm local time, and it is forecast to be another toasty day in Tokyo.
Novak Djokovic (1) [SRB] vs. Pablo Carreno Busta (6) [ESP] – 3:00pm on Centre Court
This is the third time out of the last four Olympics that Djokovic finds himself in the men’s singles bronze medal match. 13 years ago in Beijing, Novak defeated James Blake to win the bronze. Nine years ago in London, he lost to Juan Martin Del Potro, and walked away empty-handed. On Saturday in Tokyo, he faces a player he is 4-1 against, with his only loss coming in the form of his shocking default at last summer’s US Open. That was the day Djokovic struck a ball in anger after losing the 11th game of the first set, which hit a lines judge in the throat. If not for that error in judgment, Novak might already own 21 Major titles. He avenged that embarrassing loss to Carreno Busta a month later in Paris, defeating the Spaniard in the fall version of Roland Garros. Outside of the 2020 US Open, their only hard court encounter was a year earlier in Cincinnati, which Djokovic won in straight sets.
Novak was remarkably despondent after suffering two losses on Friday, especially after failing to close out Sascha Zverev despite being up a set and a break. He played some lackluster tennis in the second half of that semifinal, and he will not enjoy playing at 3:00pm on Saturday, the hottest part of the day. But he is still a favorite to win his second bronze medal in men’s singles, as there’s nothing on court Carreno Busta does especially better than Djokovic. Novak should be able to control his destiny on this day.
Belinda Bencic (9) [SUI] vs. Marketa Vondrousova [CZE] – Third on Centre Court
This should be a highly-compelling battle, between two players who utilize the variety in their games extremely well. Their only previous meeting took place earlier this year on a hard court in Miami, with Vondrousova prevailing 6-4 in the third. The 22-year-old Czech was a shocking finalist two years ago at the French Open. She was sidelined by injury for about six months shortly thereafter, and didn’t fully rediscover that form until this past week. She only possesses one career WTA title, which came over four years ago at a WTA 250 event in Switzerland, Bencic’s home country.
24-year-old Belinda has endured plenty of injury setbacks in her career, but is the more accomplished player with four career titles, all of them at either the 500 or 1000 level. Her backhand may be the best shot on the court, but Vondrousova’s lefty serve, paired with frequent drop shots, have proven to be a dangerous combination throughout this event. In her last eight sets played, no opponent has won more than four games. And those opponents include two top four seeds: Naomi Osaka and Elina Svitolina. Bencic has survived much tighter battles to this stage, claiming a trio of consecutive three-setters.
Between her victories over Osaka and Svitolina, Vondrousova averaged 77% of first serve points won. If she can maintain that against Bencic, she’ll be hard to overcome. But with a gold medal in the balance, Belinda’s experience edge in big matches should prove crucial. And she has previous success representing her country, as she won back-to-back Hopman Cups alongside Roger Federer. Belinda Bencic is the favorite to stand atop the medal podium on Saturday night in Tokyo.
Other Notable Matches on Saturday:
Elina Svitolina (4) [UKR] vs. Elena Rybakina (15) [KAZ] – They have split their two previous matches, though neither were on a hard court. While this is not exactly a tournament final, it’s worth noting Svitolina is 15-3 lifetime in career finals, which is a lot different than Rybakina’s record of 2-5, with her most recent loss in a final coming at the hands of Svitolina.
Veronika Kudermetova and Elena Vesnina [ROC] vs. Laura Pigossi and Luisa Stefani [BRA] – Kudermetova and Vesnina were narrowly defeated in the Wimbledon final 9-7 in the third, and lost another close match in Thursday’s semifinals, decided by a 10-point tiebreak. Pigossi and Stefani do not usually team together, but they saved four match points in their second round matchup.
Ash Barty and John Peers [AUS] vs. Nina Stojanovic and Novak Djokovic [SRB] – It is an extremely rare occasion for both the men’s and women’s No.1’s, as well as the reigning Wimbledon champions, to share a court. Barty and Peers are the far more experienced doubles players, though Djokovic will surely play some inspired tennis as he tries to win another medal for Serbia.
Saturday’s full Order of Play is here.
