Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini make history with the first Olympic racket gold: no one had ever achieved it before them.
The two Italians beat the pair of young Russians without the flag Andreeva-Shnaider in the supertiebreak 2-6, 6-1, 10-7.
For Italy it is the seventh gold in Paris 2024.
A "crazy, crazy" gold medal. In Sara Errani's first words there is all the joy of success. «We started very badly - adds Errani -, it was hard, but we recovered immediately and now we are too happy». Even for Paolini «it was very difficult. I entered very tense, but then the tension went away. It's a unique emotion."
«Historic gold medal for Italy's tennis team at the Olympic Games. Thank you Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini. Come on girls", writes Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on X.
«The Golden Girls of Italian tennis. Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini Olympic champions! A historic gold medal for our sport. Italy is proud of you!!!», is the comment, again on X, of the deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Antonio Tajani .
«Sport is a gentleman, even tennis, which has given Sara Errani what someone had unfortunately taken from her», said the president of Federtennis, Angelo Binaghi , at Roland Garros. The obvious reference is to the doping affair which in 2017 involved Errani, who tested positive for letrozole, and who defended herself by blaming a contaminated tortellino. «I believe that - continued Binaghi - even in Sara's case a monument should be made to the family, we have always been close to her. We are like elephants, we don't forget anything, for better or for worse. Our kids are all extraordinary, they are envied all over the world. They were superior to everyone, even those who had to defend them and didn't do so when they needed it", concluded the president of the Italian Tennis Federation.
(Unioneonline)
