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Venus and Serena Williams won the gold medal in women's doubles.
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For Venus and Serena Williams, it was a dominating victory.
The sisters, with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain on Sunday, added important pieces of hardware to their already full trophy case: Olympic gold medals.
It was the second Olympic gold medal in doubles for the sisters, who also won the title in 2000, and it was the third gold medal overall for Venus, who captured the singles title in Sydney, as well. They are now 10-0 as a doubles team in Olympic competition.
Both Serena and Venus lost in the quarterfinals of the singles competition at the 2008 Olympics, with Serena falling to eventual gold medalist Elena Dementieva in three sets and Venus losing to hometown favorite Li Na of China, 7-5, 7-5.
But the gold medal in doubles for the sisters was the best performance among the Americans at the Beijing Olympics, who had an overall solid effort at the Games.
Also medaling in doubles were the world No. 2 team of Bob and Mike Bryan, who defeated Michael Llodra and Arnaut Clement of France to win the bronze – their first career Olympic medal.
In singles, James Blake had the best showing among the Americans, as he played in the bronze-medal match against world No. 3 Novak Djokovic, losing 6-3, 7-6 (4). It came on the heels of a tight 6-4, 5-7, 9-11 loss to Fernando Gonzalez in the semifinals that featured a key disputed call.
But it was a great showing for Blake, a first-time Olympian currently ranked No. 9 in the world, as he defeated 12-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer in the quarterfinals.
The U.S. women’s team suffered a setback before the competition began, when 1996 Olympic gold medalist Lindsay Davenport had to withdraw from singles with a lingering knee injury.
However, Davenport was still able to compete in doubles for the U.S. with world No. 1 doubles player Liezel Huber – playing in her first Olympics for the U.S. – and the pair reached the quarterfinals.
Rounding out the rest of the U.S. team, Robby Ginepri lost to eventual bronze medalist Djokovic, and Sam Querrey lost to Igor Andreev in the first round of men’s singles. The final member of the U.S. team, as a late addition, was Jill Craybas, who lost to Patty Schnyder in the first round of women’s singles.
The American stars next head to New York for the 2008 US Open, which runs Aug. 25-Sept. 7, 2008.