Photo: ITF/Corinne Dubreuil
Félix Auger-Aliassime and Gabriela Dabrowski will be bringing an Olympic medal back to Canada.
The Canadian mixed doubles pair claimed the bronze medal on Friday at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, defeating the Dutch pair of Wesley Koolhof and Demi Schuurs in straight sets. It is just the second Olympic tennis medal in Canadian history.
On top of the victory being Canada’s first mixed doubles medal at the Olympics, Dabrowski becomes the first Canadian woman to win a tennis medal at the Games. Canada’s only other Olympic medal was a gold in men’s doubles, won by Sebastien Lareau and Daniel Nestor at the 2000 Games in Sydney.
Apart from a spell midway through the second set, the Canadian pair dominated the match, relying on Auger-Aliassime’s power and Dabrowski’s craftiness to claim a 6-3, 7-6(2) win and land on the podium.
The margins were razor thin in the opening set, but the Canadians were able to seize on the only break point for either pair. At 2-1, Schuurs double faulted to give the Canadians a break point and Dabrowski converted, using a clever slice forehand to set up a smash winner.
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Dabrowski faced pressure on her serve at 4-1, battling through a couple of deuces but managed to hold without facing a break point. When it came time to close out the set at 5-3, Auger-Aliassime slammed the door with a hold to love.
Everything was going the Canadians way at the time as, in the first game of the second set, they went ahead love-40 on Koolhof’s serve and Dabrowski’s floating return took a nasty kick which the Dutchman could not handle, dumping a forehand into the net to surrender the break.
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When the Dutch pair won a point on their own serve for 0-2, 15-all, it ended a 13-point streak for the Canadians dating back to the final game of the first set. Still, they got a pair of break points at 15-40 and Auger-Aliassime overpowered Schuurs with his heavy forehand in a baseline exchange to make it a double break lead.
However, they failed to consolidate the second break. For the first time in the match, the Canadians found themselves down break point on Dabrowski’s serve and Schuurs ripped a clean return winner to reclaim one.
Suddenly, the momentum was firmly with the Dutch. Again on Dabrowski’s serve at 4-3, a Koolhof return floated in to set up a break point and he timed a poach perfectly to level the set at 4-4.
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If the Canadians were nervous at seeing their big lead slip away, they did not let it affect their play when the tension hit its peak in the tiebreak. Auger-Aliassime asserted himself early in the breaker, using some big hitting to claim a minibreak on the first point and then winning both on his own serve to put Canada ahead 3-0.
That turned out to be more than enough as the Dutch only mustered two points in the breaker. From 5-2, it was Dabrowski’s turn to take over, timing an attack off a return perfectly to set up quadruple match point where she whipped out a spectacular volley to seal the win for Canada.
Auger-Aliassime has a chance to come home with another bronze medal as he will play in the third-place match in men’s singles on Saturday.
