Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Felix Auger-Aliassime won the tennis mixed doubles bronze medal at the Paris Olympics on Friday with a 6-3, 7-6 (2) victory over Demi Schuurs and Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands.
Ottawa’s Dabrowski and Montreal’s Auger-Aliassime won the last two points of the second-set tiebreaker on return, and clinched the medal when Dabrowski forced a Schuurs error on match point.
The Canadians appeared to be coasting to victory leading 4-2 in the second set, but the Dutch tandem held in the seventh game, then came down from a 40-15 deficit to score a lifesaving break to tie the set 4-4.
The Canadians recovered and took an early 3-0 lead in the second set tiebreaker. After Schuurs and Koolhof cut the lead to one with two points on serve, the Canadians answered with four straight points to reach the podium.
WATCH l Dabrowski, Auger-Aliassime end Canada’s Olympic tennis medal drought:
Felix Auger-Aliassime and Gaby Dabrowski teamed up to defeat the Netherland’s Wesley Koolhof and Demi Schuurs 6-3, 7-6(2) to claim the Olympic bronze medal in mixed doubles tennis.
Canada’s only other Olympic tennis medal came in 2000, when Daniel Nestor beat the heavily-favoured Australian duo of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde in the men’s doubles final at the Sydney Games.
Auger-Aliassime has a chance to add to that when he plays for men’s singles bronze on Saturday. The Canadian missed out on a chance to play for gold after losing 6-1, 6-1 to Spanish star Carlos Alcaraz in a semifinal earlier Friday.
The 23-year-old Auger-Aliassime committed 23 unforced errors compared to Alcaraz’s 13 and was outscored 58-35 in total points. Alcaraz didn’t face break point and converted five of his nine break chances while cruising to victory in one hour 15 minutes on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
WATCH l Auger-Aliassime falls to Alcaraz in Olympic semifinal:
Number two seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain defeated Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-1, 6-1 in the Olympic semifinals.
Auger-Aliassime, the men’s 13th seed, reached the final four after upsets over fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev in the third round and sixth-seeded Casper Ruud in the quarterfinals. His impressive campaign is the best-ever singles result by a Canadian at an Olympic Games.
He will face either top seed Novak Djokovic or No. 11 Lorenzo Musetti in Saturday’s bronze-medal match. Watch live coverage on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Olympics app and CBC Gem.
Alcaraz, 21, is the reigning Wimbledon and French Open champion. He reached the Olympic gold-medal match without losing a set, continuing his dominant form on the clay courts in Paris.