World
Olympics: Errani and Paolini win historic gold in Paris
Italian tennis players win doubles against Russians Andreeva and Shnaider in career highlight.
Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini won on a super tie-break against the Russian neutral team’s Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider to win gold in doubles 2-6, 6-1, 10-7.
For Errani, 37, it was a victory that takes her to the Golden Slam of her doubles career. Novak Djokovic also reached the GoldenSlam of his career today by beating Spanish player Carlos Alcaraz.
The extraordinary victory brings Italy to 21 medals, with seven golds.
“This final is crazy because of how it went: we started very badly in the first set then we were there and somehow pulled it together. It was tough but we are really happy,” Sara Errani said.
She was echoed by Jasmine Paolini: ‘It was very difficult. I came in very tense and I was struggling, then little by little the tension went away and we started to play better. It was tough but we are very happy. Truly a unique emotion”.