Novak Djokovic suffered a double defeat, losing in the semifinals of both men’s singles and mixed-doubles play at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on Friday.
The favorite to win the gold medal in singles, the top-seeded Serbian lost to No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany, who came from a set down to win 1-6, 6-3, 6-1. Zverev will meet Russian Karen Khachanov, the 12th seed, for the gold medal on Sunday, while Djokovic will play sixth-seeded Spaniard Pablo Carreno-Busta in the bronze-medal match on Saturday.
He’ll also contend for a bronze in mixed doubles after Russian Olympic Committee’s Elena Vesnina and Aslan Karatsev defeated Djokovic and partner Nina Stojanovic 7-6 (4), 7-5. It will be an all-Russian final in the event as Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Andrey Rublev defeated Australians Ashleigh Barty and John Peers 5-7, 6-4, 13-11 in the other semifinal.
Serbia has four medals through seven days of competition in the Tokyo Games. The United States leads the overall medal count with 41, followed by China (40), ROC (34), Japan (28) and Great Britain (24). The Chinese lead the gold-medal chase with 19, while host Japan has 17 and the U.S. has 14.
In other Olympics action:
–Team USA won its opening-round baseball game, defeating Israel 8-1. Tyler Austin had two hits and three RBIs, while Bubba Starling and Eddy Alvarez, the flag-bearer in the Opening Ceremony, each drive in two runs. Right-hander Joe Ryan gave up one run on five hits and struck out five in six innings to get the win. In the day’s other game, former major leaguers Melky Cabrera and Jose Bautista led the Dominican Republic to a 1-0 win over Mexico.
–Xander Schauffele shot a second-round 63 to move into the lead entering Saturday’s third round. Schauffele was 8-under in the second round, thanks to a fiery finish that included three birdies and an eagle over the final five holes. At 11-under for the tournament, Schauffele holds a one-shot lead over Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz entering Saturday’s third round.
–Megan Rapinoe converted the winning kick in the shootout to lift the United States women’s national team to victory over the Netherlands. Rose Lavelle, Alex Morgan and Christen Press also made their penalty kicks as the Americans won 4-2 in PKs following a 2-2 tie and extra time. The U.S. advanced to the semifinals on Monday to face Canada, which secured a 4-3 win over Brazil on penalty kicks after a scoreless draw following extra time.
–A’ja Wilson collected 20 points and 10 rebounds to pace the United States to an 86-69 victory over Japan. Breanna Stewart had 15 points and 13 boards to pace the Americans to their 51st straight victory in Olympic competition dating back to the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona.
–In the pool, four different nations added to their gold-medal tallies. South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker won the women’s 200-meter breaststroke, ROC’s Evgeny Rylov took the men’s 200m backstroke, Emma McKeon of Australia was victorious in the 100m freestyle and Shun Wang of China won the men’s 200m individual medley.
For the Americans, Lilly King and Annie Lazor won silver and bronze, respectively, in the 200m breaststroke, and Ryan Murphy took the silver in the 200m backstroke.
–Field Level Media